:EZES FROM THE 
ORIENT 



IRA FRANCIS HARRIS 





Class JIqSQa 

si 

Book .- /f 3^ 

Copyright^? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



Breezes from the Orient 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/breezesfromorienOOharr 



BREEZES 
FROM THE ORIENT 



By 
IRA FRANCIS HARRIS 



NASHUA, N. H. 
1913 



DSSOS 
.H35 



Copyright, 1913, 
By Ira Francis Harris 

All rights reserved 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 



Foreword 

♦ 

The following letters, written by Ira F. 
Harris, Cashier of the Indian Head Na- 
tional Bank, Nashua, N. H., to the Nashua 
Daily Telegraph, are herewith reprinted at 
the request of numerous friends, with due 
credit and apology to the authors of 
" Travel," " The West in the East," " In- 
dia, Its Life and Thought," " Twice Around 
the World," and all from whom any facts, 
figures or thoughts were borrowed. 

The letters were hastily written, while on 
a tour around the world, going east, which 
left New York, January the fourth, nine- 
teen hundred and thirteen, returning May 
the twenty-fourth of the same year. 



List of Illustrations 

— ♦ — 

PAGE 

Starting for Ambur . . . Frontispiece 

A Ship of the Desert, Ghizeh, Egypt . 15 

At the Tomb of Thi, Lybian Desert, Sak- 
karah, Egypt 17 

Buddhist Pagoda, Colombo, Ceylon . . 33 

Brahmin Temple, Trichinopoly, India . 41 

The Bridegroom S 1 

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India . • • 57 

Burning ; Ghat, Bank of the Ganges, India 65 

A " Dandy," the Public Conveyance of 
Darjeeling 69 

In the Teak Yards of Rangoon, Burma . 83 

A Shanghai Taxicab 115 

A "Rickshaw" .119 

The Sacred Bridge, Nikko, Japan . . 135 

A Fair Passenger 145 



Breezes from the Orient 



Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 29, 191 3. 
Shepheard's Hotel. 
OUR party left New York, January 4th, 
on the heel of a ninety-mile gale and the 
barometer the lowest in twenty-two years, 
so it was 

Racks on the tables, 
Chains on the chairs, 
Ornaments and dishes 
Sliding everywhere, 

but we rode out the storm, which contin- 
ued practically all the way, very comfort- 
ably. 

All told, there were some three thousand 
souls on board, including twenty-three hun- 



2 Breezes from the Orient 

dred Greeks, summoned to their father- 
land, — perhaps forever, — and it was one 
of the sights of the ship to watch their prim- 
itive symbolic dances, which they contin- 
ually performed. I have an idea they were 
encouraged in this by some leader to keep 
their spirits up. 

A fashionable Atlantic steamship fur- 
nishes one of the best of opportunities to 
study the genus homo, for its passengers 
include all classes, from the poorest for- 
eigner to the multimillionaire, with a fair 
sprinkling of authors, artists and gamblers. 
In sizing them up, one would naturally look 
for the distinguished to head the sailing 
list, but the first place is reserved for Mr. 
A., as the last place is reserved for Mr. Z., 
and while the Rockerbilts are low down on 
the passenger list, you will find them quar- 
tered high up in twelve-hundred-dollar 
staterooms de luxe, where the roll is the 
greatest and where they remain in a state 
of elegant and exclusive seasickness, the 



Breezes from the Orient 3 

most of the entire voyage, for the deep blue 
is no respecter of persons. 

On this particular voyage, the smart set, 
having exhausted the festivities of the 
American holidays, were seeking fresh ex- 
periences abroad, therefore, one would 
expect to see killing toilets ; and that some 
were not injured on the rolling, slippery 
decks in their fool hobble skirts was most 
fortunate. But had they fallen, the intel- 
lectual world would have received little 
jar, as paraders are not usually made up 
of titled folk or those possessing special 
mental attainments. These seldom herald 
themselves by arrogance and overdress. It 
was interesting to note, at the first touch of 
Neptune's hand, how mighty quick those 
adorable blondes, with seal coats, orchids, 
low shoes and coughs, disappear and hiber- 
nate, while ordinary mortals, wrapped like 
mummies, lie in steamer-chairs, sorrow- 
fully nibbling sea-biscuit like overgrown 
mice. Now, while all this may sound well 



4 Breezes from the Orient 

enough in print, the very truth is that the 
whole thing is incomparably dull and stu- 
pid. In fact, there is no doubt in my own 
mind but what those poets who sang of the 
sea so alluringly and wrote of the land so 
disparagingly, were either prevaricators, or 
were subsidized by the steamship compan- 
ies. All things, however, have an end, and 
after thirteen days of almost continuous 
storm and monotonous motion, the good 
ship dropped anchor off ancient Monaco, 
and the swash from the Laconia kissed the 
shores of Southern France. 

All went merry as a marriage-bell until 
the " Glad Hand " society lined up as we 
were to quit the ship, when those professing 
to have claims on me for personal services 
numbered well into the scores ; in fact, they 
came so thick and fast that not only did 
they absorb my cash, but the incessant shov- 
ing of my right hand into my trousers 
pocket caused a subluxation of my clavicle 
bone, which put my right arm out of com- 



Breezes from the Orient 5 

mission for several days. Another odd 
thing is, that you could land a peck of dia- 
monds, should you have them, but to pos- 
sess more than six cigars is a crime of in- 
ternational importance. 

When our good ship dropped anchor, 
Monaco uttered no moan, for the town has 
rejoiced and wept, fought and made merry 
since the wicked days of the bold Phoeni- 
cians, and red has been its waters with the 
blood of many lands. Monaco is an inde- 
pendent principality of about five thousand 
acres, with its prince and world-famous 
gaming establishment under the protection 
of the fleur-de-lis, and though the most 
lovely spot on the entire Ligurian coast, not 
a single feature of its matchless situation is 
adorned with structures bold enough in 
architectural lines to properly dignify its 
striking surroundings. 

The way those old Romans constructed 
their roadways from far-off Persia, across 
Syria and Asia Minor, through Europe, 



6 Breezes from the Orient 

clear on to the Irish Sea, and the manner 
in which they disdained dizzy mountain- 
tops and solemn gorges is grandly impress- 
ive; but perhaps nowhere did they master 
difficulties in a locality more superbly beau- 
tiful than along the Riviera, and while the 
present Corniche road deviates somewhat 
from that of the Romans, it follows sub- 
stantially the same path. Abounding, as it 
does, in striking scenery of exceeding 
beauty, embellished with lovely flowers and 
unique architecture, it makes perhaps the 
auto trip par excellence of the entire world. 
Had you the patience, I would worry 
you with Nice, that beautiful city which 
has uneasily shifted its location four times 
in the last thousand years; Pisa and its 
leaning tower, started in 1174 to teach 
the San Marco-ites in Venice that their 
campanile wasn't the only one on the map ; 
and with Florence, that lovely " Lily of 
the Arno." Of course we stopped at Genoa, 
trod the street in which Columbus was 



Breezes from the Orient 7 

born, gazed lovingly upon his statue im- 
mortalized by Mark Twain, and visited 
the unrivaled Campo Santo; but, notwith- 
standing history affirms that the Palazzo 
Doria was furnished with tables, bedsteads, 
etc., of solid silver set with pearls and pre- 
cious stones, we were unable to clandes- 
tinely appropriate any of the articles to 
verify the statement. 

In Rome, we did as Romans do. If I 
told you all we did, I should expect a re- 
call from Doctor Soper, but as I am travel- 
ing with Unitarians, the doctor must over- 
look many things. Among other stunts, I 
mounted the rostrum in the Forum and 
spoke feelingly on the unsettled political 
situation in New Hampshire; then saun- 
tered into the arena of the old Coliseum, 
and in letters of heroic size boldly began 
to write on its walls that the Indian Head 
Bank's savings department pays three per 
cent., but suddenly perceiving Caesar, with 
his thumbs turned down, and a couple of 



8 Breezes from the Orient 

gladiators approaching, I stealthily made 
my exit, via the Ponte Fabricio (the oldest 
bridge in Rome, erected in B. C. 62 and 
reminding me of our own Main Street 
bridge), then fled to Naples. 

Some one has said " See Naples and 
die," but the view is far more charming 
than its smell. Its population is much con- 
gested; in fact, you can go to bed all by 
your lonesome and awake with anywhere 
from six to sixty crawling over you, and all 
with ravenous appetites. Everybody knows 
of the city's beautiful bay, but not hanker- 
ing for a high-grade spell of mal-de-mer, 
I omitted the Blue Grotto and hiked for 
Vesuvius. 

First, you go by train to a little white- 
washed town called Pugliano. I am glad 
you weren't with us, Burtt, when we first 
spotted that train, because you laugh so 
loud. The cars were perched so high that, 
without stooping, we could witness the 
tearful good-byes on the opposite platform. 



Breezes from the Orient 9 

But we climbed up their several steps and 
were soon on our way, after which we took 
the cable, and then we walked about a 
fourth of a mile along a dizzy path of loose 
cinders embellished with jets of hissing 
steam, and after taking the usual rubber 
into the sulphurous depths, and having in- 
haled sufficient gas to enable the Nashua 
Light, Heat & Power Company to increase 
its dividends, we gingerly retraced our 
steps. I had intended enclosing a wild 
rose as a souvenir, but regret to say there 
is nothing doing up there in the line of flo- 
ral exhibits ; however, I took specimens of 
lava enough to decorate a fair-sized Italian 
garden, which will be on exhibition at 36 
Orange Street after June 1st. Strangers 
welcome. 

Having seen Chelsea, I wasn't crazy 
about Pompeii, but went out there just the 
same, and, having purchased a ticket, sal- 
lied into the sunlit tomb; stumbled over 
ruts worn by chariot wheels ; explored the 



io Breezes from the Orient 

baths of Stavis ; visited the bake-shop where 
that dinner of eighteen hundred and thirty- 
two years ago was being prepared; and 
having satisfied my curiosity and blistered 
my feet, returned reluctantly to Naples, 
from which burg we made our escape on 
the North German Lloyd steamship, Prince 
Rupert. 

And now outside of the quay, let us look 
back upon the matchless shores — let us 
look back a long way, and in memory's eye 
we will see within their graceful curves the 
history of two thousand years. On its 
waters, we will see stately ships laden with 
oil and corn and wild beasts; also barges 
resplendent with an imperial court. A lit- 
tle farther up, St. Paul landed, and before 
him rose tier upon tier of marble villas — 
the street in front was called the " Street 
of Gold." Yonder is the rock-bound Isle 
Nisida, where Brutus lived and Portia 
died; a la Burton Holmes. 

After passing Stromboli's fiery peak, 



Breezes from the Orient u 

Messina's lovely shores, a couple of days 
at sea, then along the low-lying shores of 
Northern Africa, we disembarked at an- 
cient Alexandria, and are on Pharaoh's 
soil. 

I will not burden you with reference to 
the much described city of Aladdin, the 
Sphinx or the Pyramids ; but the street life 
is curious, and the donkey-boys are cer- 
tainly novel. Their alertness in spotting 
American travelers is truly wonderful, and 
their eagerness in recounting the virtues of 
their patient little beasts, named for our 
special benefit, Yankee Doodle, Abraham 
Lincoln and George Washington, is worthy 
of emulation. 

Every real, live, healthy boy loves to eat 
watermelons and dream dreams, and while 
the melons raised by myself were usually 
clandestinely appropriated by some other 
lad, my boyhood dreams were safely stored 
where moth and rust did not corrupt. 
Somehow, the Libyan Desert, with its vast 



12 Breezes from the Orient 

solitude, has ever held for me a strange 
fascination, and books like the " Garden of 
Allah," a peculiar charm. Therefore, when 
we left our Nile steamer, and with our 
donkeys and Arab guides turned our faces 
toward the ruins of Memphis, and across 
the sandy waste to the pyramids of Sak- 
karah, notwithstanding the ridiculousness 
of balancing a seven by nine homo on the 
back of a three by five donkey, there came 
that soul-satisfying sensation, — the reward 
of long anticipation. 

Five thousand, five hundred years ago, 
here stood a noble city whose walls were 
thirteen miles in circumference. Here in 
this very Serapeum were buried the sacred 
Apis bulls. Here in the sand lies the colos- 
sal statue of Rameses II, — forty-two feet 
in height, — a telltale of the city's former 
grandeur. On this same Nile, the barge of 
Cleopatra floated, beside its waters Moses 
lived, and far over the almost endless desert 
— beyond the fringe of palms — the same 



Breezes from the Orient 13 

gorgeous sunset painted the same forbid- 
ding hills with its glorious light. 

Sunday, we leave for a twelve-day jour- 
ney through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, 
and across the Indian Ocean to the palm- 
bordered shores of spicy Ceylon. 

We are all well. 



Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 8, 19 13. 
There are three ways of reaching Sak- 
karah from Cairo. By train you can offend 
the shades of the Pharaohs and watch the 
date-palms, which like inverted feather 
dusters poke their showy heads above the 
river's mist. At the Mena House, you can 
hire a smelly camel, probably named Nellie 
Gray, and shamble twenty miles across the 
fiery desert; but we went up the historic 
Nile, under the new bridge, heavy with 
strings of camels loaded with the debris 
of centuries agone, past the isle of Rhoda, 
the reputed spot where Moses was found, 
and, having met every variety of craft 
known to that region, our fussy launch 
poked its nose into the mud opposite the 
village of Bedreschein, a collection of di- 
lapidated adobe huts wholly out of propor- 

14 



Breezes from the Orient 15 

tion to its ponderous name. But the small- 
ness of the village is many times offset by 
the vigorous yelling of the Arabs who were 
in waiting to devour us. 

Good fortune prompted me to select a 
demure gray donkey from the sorrowful 
bunch, for, as it turned out, the " boy " who 
accompanied the brute for the purpose of 
lending it frequent encouragement to more 
persistent effort, had been over to the St. 
Louis exposition, where he had picked up 
a smattering of English. Having informed 
me that the string of blue beads around the 
donkey's neck was to ward off evil spirits, 
that his marriage had been blessed with two 
children, that it was hired mourners making 
the horrible noise in a near-by home, that 
the donkey's name was Yankee Doodle, 
that, had I been a German, it would have 
been Bismarck, and that with an English- 
man it would have been honored by the 
somewhat convivial title of Whiskey-and- 
Soda, the loquacious Arab continued to in- 



1 6 Breezes from the Orient 

flict his broken English in a manner most 
amusing. 

The great orchards of date-palms 
through which our uncertain path wound 
its way bear little evidence of Roman oc- 
cupation, and of ancient Memphis nothing 
remains save the two fallen statues of 
Rameses II, once guarding the gateway of 
her famous temple. Each figure is forty- 
two feet long, with attractive features, but 
to class them with the best Grecian sculp- 
ture is a joke. Beyond the palms, our 
route lay for some miles along the banks 
of irrigating-canals, past splendid fields of 
barley, to Sakkarah, on the desert's Very 
edge. 

What object marked the first human 
burial, no man knows, but the earliest rec- 
ord of such sad events occupy the fringe of 
desert from Sakkarah to Ghizeh, some 
twenty miles away. 

From before Memphis was mighty, on 
till after the Persians ruled Egypt, a 



Breezes from the Orient 17 

period of more than two thousand years, 
birds and beasts, as well as Egypt's fa- 
mous dead, sleep the last sleep beneath these 
shifting sands, and their mortuary relics 
include some of the grandest works of man. 
Their history would be a history of Egypt, 
and while the Step Pyramid dominates the 
immediate landscape, it is the tomb of the 
sacred bulls and the profusely ornamented 
tomb of Thi that commands one's special 
attention. 

All the huge sarcophagi that contained 
the mummies of the sacred bulls were 
broken open ages ago by some awfully bad 
men, — that was robbery; but to bodily 
remove the great stone coffins to a museum 
in Cairo, which in a few hundred years 
will most likely be but a heap of debris, is 
science, and when science has done with 
Egypt, probably the pyramids alone will 
mark its early civilization. 

The tomb of Thi is smaller than that of 
the Apis bulls, but far more elegant. It 



1 8 Breezes from the Orient 

is said that Thi was the architect of the 
Great Pyramid, and the profuse adornment 
of his tomb indicates that architects, even 
in that remote period, had learned the art 
of figuring out good profit for themselves. 
One could spend days in examining the thou- 
sands of figures depicting Egypt's early life 
and customs, which adorn its walls. Lower 
Egypt possesses ruins more spectacular, but 
nothing older, finer or more interesting 
than are to be seen in this locality. 

From the Citadel in Cairo, a wondrous 
view is obtained, and perhaps the strangest 
sights within that long range of vision are 
the pyramids that mark the way from Ghi- 
zeh to Sakkara'h. 

How old is the human family, that it re- 
quired the grandest cemetery on earth to 
hold its dead — say four thousand years 
ago? 



Red Sea, Feb. 10, 1913. 

If my epistle from Egypt reduced the 
circulation of your paper so as to imperil 
your next dividend, no hard feelings will be 
entertained should you consign this effusion 
to the waste-basket, for my wild dissipation 
in the bazaars of Cairo had somewhat upset 
my mental equilibrium when it was com- 
piled. But didn't we have one great time 
in that kaleidoscope city of the Orient, and 
didn't Cairo have one great time with us, 
as it sold us scarabs and other junk with- 
out stint, all claimed to have been taken 
from ancient tombs, but probably made in 
Germany some time within the last twelve 
moons. 

" Shepheard's," at Cairo, is one of the 
show hotels of the world. Few, indeed, 
are the places where can be seen such an 
array of the " smart set " of all lands. Your 

19 



20 Breezes from the Orient 

bill will probably start a little perspiration 
from your semi-dormant form, but you have 
seen titled ladies smoke their cigarettes, 
written your friends on " Shepheard " sta- 
tionery, sat with the gay throng in front 
of the house and watched, maybe, the most 
conglomerate mix-up of barbaric costumes, 
confusing tongues and artful fakirs to be 
met with on earth, and why shouldn't you 
settle? Good things, you know, cost money. 

If you want the exact measurements of 
the pyramids, consult an encyclopaedia, but 
don't be too anxious about climbing them. 
You know it is better to accept some things 
on faith. To be sure, for a consideration, 
three treacherous-looking Arabs, in soiled 
gowns, will vigorously assist you, but your 
strained and distorted muscles will be pun- 
gent with the odor of liniment for several 
days thereafter. 

At the Mena House, you will be met by 
an array of Bedouins and moth-eaten cam- 
els with finicky names. Of course, you pro- 



Breezes from the Orient 21 

test in all languages, but finally surrender, 
mount the kneeling, grunting thing that 
breaks your back when it rises, and mourn- 
fully encircle those piles of stone. At the 
Coliseum in Rome exclamations are in or- 
der, but before the pyramids one is speech- 
less, in fact the world contains no other 
structure so overpowering or that so excels 
one's most ardent expectations. And then 
there is the Sphinx. How old is the human 
race that it could have developed sufficient 
skill two thousand years before Abraham to 
have chiseled a monster whose earnest eyes 
should gaze alike upon the dynasties of 
Egypt, upon Arab conquerors, upon Napo- 
leon dreaming of Eastern empires, and 
which undoubtedly will still be gazing 
when our beloved nation shall have with- 
ered away? If you survive the Arab on- 
slaught for backsheesh, upon your return to 
the Mena House you can put it down in 
italics on your note-book that you are a past 
master in the art of travel. 



22 Breezes from the Orient 

I fully intended going back, and by 
moonlight divide an hour or two between 
contemplation and the mosquitoes, but in 
my weakness was beguiled to attend a dress 
ball at Shepheard's, where were gathered 
the greatest assortment of Parisian gowns 
and homely women it has been my lot to 
encounter under a single roof. 

If you are of a Biblical turn of mind, 
you can be shown where Moses was found ; 
if it wasn't too long for the parcel post, I 
would send you one of the original bul- 
rushes. About five miles away, down at old 
Heliopolis, they point out the spot where 
the Holy Family rested. It is a great pity 
the Lord could not go to Cairo now, for 
in area of filth and barbaric depravity, cer- 
tain parts of the city have few equals in 
the world's pot-holes of sin. Some one has 
said that of the twenty-five thousand inhab- 
itants of Port Said, 24,995 are " guides " 
and the other five ought to be in jail. At 
any rate, should you care to listen to a mod- 



Breezes from the Orient 23 

ern portrayal of Babylonic linguistic con- 
fusion in lurid form, go to Port Said; but, 
while the place may not be as bad as por- 
trayed, it is no religious camp-meeting. 

History affirms that the Suez Canal, 
which is father, mother and nurse-girl to 
Port Said, is not the first canal through that 
region, and that Seti I started one from the 
Nile to the Red Sea, but this being about 
the time the first eight-hour law went into 
effect, it was some thousand years in course 
of construction. How long the affair 
lasted, and the amount of dividends paid, 
Moody's Manual does not state, but the 
present ditch is eighty-two miles in length 
and, including political plums, graft and 
mistakes, cost $1,000,000 a mile, — but 
brought England five or six thousand miles 
nearer to her Indian colonies. They 
charged our steamship $15,000 to pass 
through, or about $1,000 an hour. After 
the canal comes Bitter Lake, where the 
Israelites are believed to have crossed on 



24 Breezes from the Orient 

dry land, but unfortunately forgot to anchor 
any buoys to mark their route. 

The Red Sea, proper, is a couple of hun- 
dred miles in width, and supposed to be 
the hottest place in this, or any future 
world, but as the mercury in my room 
averaged only about eighty-six, it indicates 
that certain doctrinal beliefs should be re- 
vised. About eight hundred miles further 
along, comes Jiddah, the port of Mecca. 
There are lots of curious things in and 
about Jiddah, including the tomb of Eve, 
but this need not upset your religious be- 
lief. What do you suppose we are spend- 
ing our time and good money for, if it isn't 
to swallow everything we hear? While 
looking over a hotel menu up in Italy, I 
incidentally inquired of my table-girl if 
she had frog's legs, and received the indig- 
nant reply that it was chilblains that made 
h!er walk that way, and I believed that also. 

A couple of days further along around 
the corner of Arabia brings one to Aden, 



Breezes from the Orient 25 

a British stronghold, which, for sizzling 
heat, is favored with a reputation equal to 
that of the Red Sea. 

I am mailing this letter from that red- 
hot town, where I am told the Europeans 
rendezvous in holes in the ground during 
the middle of the day, and can assure you 
that if, in your next campaign, you desire 
to say to your political opponent the mean- 
est thing that words can invent, you should 
tell him to go to Aden. 

Should you care to hear more of this part 
of the country, read " Twice Around the 
World," you will enjoy it. 



Indian Ocean, Feb. 12, 1913. 

One can get more enjoyment out of five 
six-course dinners than from one thirty- 
course meal; likewise, more lasting mem- 
ories can be had from two three-month 
journeys than one six-month tour. 

We have been on this ship ten days, and 
it's three more before we are due to land. 
It seems like I have been aboard three 
months. 

They say a French steamer burned a few 
days ago, and the derelict is floating around 
here. I shall not feel disappointed if we 
miss it. At Aden, the natives who came 
out to the ship were all dressed with a table- 
cloth tied around their waist. Aden would 
be a poor place to set up a tailor shop. 

The most popular persons on the ship are 

those who laugh themselves hoarse at every 

26 



Breezes from the Orient 27 

joke they hear. I have not heard a fresh 
one since we left the Laconia. 

If the manager of the Elks' Minstrels 
could have his end men imitate the hair on 
some of those fellows up at Aden, Keith 
would steal them. Their hair is about 
seven inches long, black at the roots, red 
on the ends, and stands out from their heads 
porcupine fashion. The little waves in it 
reminded me of Geraldine's before break- 
fast. 

A Mohammedan is required to pray at 
least four times every day. First he must 
thoroughly wash his feet and on up to his 
knees, then his hands and arms, and lastly 
his face and neck, particularly his ears and 
eyes. If on a desert, he can use sand. He 
then faces towards Mecca, jabbers loudly, 
waves his hands mysteriously, talks again, 
kneels, then vigorously bumps his head on 
whatever he is kneeling on, after which 
he stands up and repeats the manceuver, 
except the washing act. I don't know 



28 Breezes from the Orient 

where a Mohammedan goes to when he 
dies. 

After a dozen days at sea, it's pitiable to 
watch men wander around with vacant, 
fishy stares upon their faces. I don't know 
as I shall have sense enough to draw my 
salary when I get home. 

I asked the first officer to-day how far 
we were from land. He replied that he 
hadn't taken any soundings, but reckoned 
we were about a mile and a half. The sea 
is smooth and the weather fine. 

An Englishman told me to-day that he 
couldn't understand the American tariff. 
I was ashamed to tell him that the Amer- 
icans didn't understand it better than 
he. 

When I first came aboard, the baggage- 
master weighed me and took my name. He 
said I would be weighed when I left the 
ship, and the person making the greatest 
gain would receive a prize. They furnish 
three hot meals and four cold lunches every 



Breezes from the Orient 29 

day. There will be no show for me unless 
I can bribe the rooms steward to annihilate 
the fleas in my bed. 

In the steerage, they tell me, is an old 
man going home to die. I hope that when 
I get old and useless they won't send me 
steerage. 

This ship is burning about one hundred 
fifty tons of coal every twenty-four hours, 
and is making fifteen knots; if the speed 
were increased to nineteen knots, she would 
burn about three hundred tons every 
twenty-four hours. Fast things cost money. 

At the hotel in Cairo, the waiters wore 
white nightgowns. I don't want to be a 
stickler, but mother taught me that night- 
gowns should never be worn in a dining- 
room. 

A friend on board has an acquaintance 
on the Prince Ludwig, a ship steaming 
towards us but some three hundred miles 
away. These two people have communi- 
cated with each other this afternoon nine 



30 Breezes from the Orient 

times by wireless. I was interested in 
watching the procedure. 

It's curious to observe how hard certain 
mothers who have daughters that can sing 
or recite, will work to get up a " concert " 
on shipboard. I was " touched " this after- 
noon for a half-sovereign to assist in a prize 
in such a scheme ; but I think I have funds 
enough left to get home. 

I have jotted down these random 
thoughts in sheer desperation for something 
to do, as life on shipboard is becoming 
unbearably monotonous. So please forgive 
me. 



Colombo, Ceylon, Feb. 16, 1913. 

WE arrived here February 13th for a 
stay of five days, and I wish it had been for 
five minutes. If I could get hold of that 
" spicy breeze " fellow we hear so much 
about in missionary hymns, he and I would 
have a heart to heart talk, for I have sniffed 
myself black in the face and have scented 
nothing spicy yet. 

The temperature is 184, more or less, 
and when it doesn't rain, which isn't often, 
the air is steaming hot. The sheets on my 
bed are so damp that I believe if I should 
wad one of them up and chuck it against 
the wall, the thing would stick right there. 
My trunk keys are covered with rust, and 
so is my stomach. In fact, it has gone 
on so pronounced a strike that, instead of 
devouring the twelve-course dinner I had 

31 



32 Breezes from the Orient 

paid for, I confined my diet to two courses 
of " Stomach-Rite," one of pepsin tablets, 
and a bottle of plain soda. I asked my 
brown-skinned waiter if the bottled water 
was charged, and he informed me that I 
would find it on my bill at the desk; where- 
upon, I took him gently by the arm and 
whispered, " Ham, let us reason together. 
I have known of your family for many 
years, having been introduced through my 
Sunday School teacher. What I desire to 
learn is whether or not your bottled water 
has horse-power." This appeared to pene- 
trate his tortoise-shell comb, for his face 
brightened and he said, " Yes, master, some 
gas, some don't gas." 

We are stopping at the Galle Face Hotel, 
a large establishment and the most preten- 
tious hostelry in Ceylon. Galle is pro- 
nounced as gall, probably on account of the 
cheek of the help, for, while in Cairo chil- 
dren are content to be born crying " Back- 
sheesh " with one hand extended, here they 





« If ^^hI 




p* .*' - T 




* — 



Breezes from the Orient 33 

come into the world with both hands out- 
stretched and a continual howl for money. 

Next Morning. 

A very wise woman once said that the 
best way to keep a man happy is to " feed 
the brute," and having subdued the re- 
bellion within my stomach, things look 
brighter. 

Amidst a grove of cocoanut-palms, fifty 
feet from a sandy beach four miles in 
length, stands this splendid hotel, and from 
my window the long lines of white breakers 
glistening under the beauties of a tropic 
sun is an inspiring sight. 

It is a mile and a half into town, and my 
rickshaw-boy makes the run without break- 
ing his trot. Clothed with only a loin- 
cloth, and a handkerchief around his head 
to keep the perspiration from his eyes, it 
is a delight to watch the display of his 
superbly developed muscles. I am quite 
carried away with rickshaws, they are so 



34 Breezes from the Orient 

handy, comfortable and cheap, — only 
eight cents into town, or seventeen cents 
per hour. 

And the strange sights one sees. Up in 
Cairo, donkeys and camels are the beasts of 
burden. Here, it is bullocks, and such 
little fellows they are. A one-bullock 
omnibus seats six passengers, also the driver, 
and makes good time, but there is a smaller 
breed used for racing that can make the 
dust fly. Then they have a sort of thatched 
kindergarten cart, in which one doubles 
himself up like a jackknife and is revived 
by the odor from the driver seated directly 
in front, whose nude ebony body is smeared 
with rancid cocoanut oil. Their talk sounds 
like gargling a sore throat, and children are 
dressed in their birthday clothes up to five 
or six years of age. 

Native fruit is poor. 

The price of everything save postage 
stamps is on a sliding scale. If five rupees 
is asked for an article, it isn't safe to offer 



Breezes from the Orient 35 

over two rupees, if you do not want the 
goods. 

The whole city is covered up with an 
immense cocoanut grove, and one rides mile 
after mile expecting each building to be the 
last. The streets are in splendid condition, 
as are the roads all over the island. When 
we have worked on ours three thousand 
years, as have they, perhaps ours will be 
better. Maybe by that time Nashua will 
have a new Main Street bridge. 

Birds flit about in the dining-hall of this 
hotel, and in some of the sleeping-rooms 
there is a sign reading thusly: " Important. 
Visitors are requested not to leave articles 
of jewelry on the dressing-table, or near 
open windows, as they are liable to be car- 
ried away by crows." My bed is draped 
with a canopy of white muslin, and my 
reflection in the large mirror was so cute 
and bridish that I had half a mind to ring 
for the band to come up and play a few 
strains of some wedding march. 



36 Breezes from the Orient 

Certainly, we went up to Kandy, forty- 
five miles away and high up on the moun- 
tains, otherwise we should have been in- 
cinerated. If Ceylon was the original 
Garden of Eden, as many claim, Eve was 
entirely justified for her alleged lack of 
raiment. The road is considered one of 
the feats of engineering and runs through 
all kinds of vegetation known to the tropics. 
The scenery is perfectly grand. We were 
especially favored by being in Kandy dur- 
ing a great religious festival, Buddhist 
priests being present from all over the East, 
and along with the faithful saw the so- 
called Buddha's tooth, which is stored in 
the Kandy temple, famous throughout the 
Buddhist world, and shown only on impor- 
tant religious occasions. 

A certain politician, in introducing Will- 
iam J. Bryan to a Nashua audience, used 
these words : " Gentlemen, this is the 
proudest moment of my life," and I felt 
about the same way as I took my first 



Breezes from the Orient 37 

elephant ride; but when I discovered the 
brute's gastric juice had been oozing out 
through his skin and had ruined my trou- 
sers, I felt different. If you are ever in- 
duced to ride an elephant bareback, I sug- 
gest that you wear India rubber pajamas. 

The moist and enervating atmosphere of 
Ceylon may well be likened to that of the 
palm room in a greenhouse, and the island is 
gorged with all sorts of creeping vines and 
plants like hibiscus, begonias, orchids, tea 
plantations, cinnamon and rubber groves. 
Of cocoanut-palms alone there are over 
twenty million bearing specimens, and more 
than one hundred and seventy million 
pounds of tea is exported annually. 

The intolerable heat of the island cannot 
well be overestimated, but the impression 
that ferocious tigers lurk behind every bush, 
that venomous serpents of monstrous size 
hang from every limb, and that the sand 
is one mass of deadly leeches, hungry to 
attach themselves to your unprotected form, 



38 Breezes from the Orient 

is all bosh. However, there would prob- 
ably be less apprehension in a New Eng- 
land park, should one care to take a stroll 
some dark night. 

I would give three dollars for a sniff of 
good Nashua air and a drink of Pennichuck 
water. I wish Nashua people could appre- 
ciate the fact that they are supplied with 
some of the best drinking-water in the 
world. 

If the snake-charmers don't get me, I 
may drop a melancholy line from India. 



Madras, India, Feb. 21, 1913. 

INDIA, the land of extremes, — how shall 
I describe it? Those poetically inclined 
usually begin by saying that upon approach- 
ing, the land slowly arose from a sea of 
molten brass, but in our case we first saw 
its shores in one of the most heroic showers 
since Noah exploited his famous irrigating 
scheme. 

In traveling under the auspices of 
Thomas Cook & Sons, one is practically 
immune from customs annoyances, as the 
officials have come to learn that Cook has 
relieved his clients of all their money be- 
fore leaving home. Still, they persist in 
patting one's hips and exploring one's sides 
in a manner most embarrassing. At first 
I supposed this was to ascertain if my 
clothes were padded to produce my Adonis 

39 



40 Breezes from the Orient 

form, but matters were cleared up when 
one coldly inquired, "Any firearms?" 

Southern India is visited by tourists very 
largely for the purpose of seeing the won- 
derful Hindu temples located at Madura, 
Trichinopoly and Tanjore, all constructed 
early in the seventeenth century and noted 
for their immense size and profuse adorn- 
ment rather than fine and painstaking de- 
tails of workmanship. They are all of one 
story, relieved by numerous gateways called 
gopurans, elaborately ornamented, some- 
thing like fifty feet wide, and wedge- 
shaped, the largest reaching a height of 
nearly 200 feet. To the student, the mono- 
lithic slabs of granite, forty feet long, used 
in their construction, are most interesting. 
The largest of these temples is located at 
Trichinopoly, being three thousand feet 
square on its outer walls, — roughly speak- 
ing, the distance around being about that 
from Pearl Street to Greeley Park. They 
are among the largest structures of the 



Breezes from the Orient 41 

world. The interiors, roofed with slabs of 
stone interspersed with open alleys, are 
filled with thousands of supporting col- 
umns, all carved, many representing gods, 
but the custom of worshipers, of pouring a 
libation of oil upon their favorite deity as 
they pass, has rendered them but filthy ob- 
jects. The smallpox god being honored by 
chewing paper, bread or anything that will 
stick, then throwing the mass at the god, — 
if it adheres you are immune, — the appear- 
ance of the image can better be imagined 
than described. 

By the way, in Trichinopoly, I visited the 
church where Bishop Heber preached his 
last sermon, and am sorry for what I said 
in a previous letter about his India's coral 
strands, spicy breezes, etc., as the poor fel- 
low was probably overcome by the heat, for 
in Southern India the merciless sun pours 
its relentless rays upon a parched soil with 
a fierceness unbearable. I have met Elmen- 
dorf, the lecturer, several times, and when 



42 Breezes from the Orient 

he goes to Boston, next winter, with his 
illustrated lecture on Southern India, it will 
pay Nashuans to hear him. 

The native servants of India clutter 
everything, and no one goes without them. 
In addition to our courier, we have two 
native servants, Lazarus and Michael. 
Lazarus addresses me as " master," while 
Michael goes him one better and refers to 
me as " my lord." Just imagine the jar I 
shall receive upon my return when the boys 
sing out " Hello, Deac." 

It is about eight hundred miles from 
Tuticorin, where we landed, to Madras, 
through a poor sort of country covered with 
great fields of cotton, castor-oil plants and 
kafla corn. In all, an uninteresting ride. 

Madras being the great stamping-ground 
of Clive, is naturally a military stronghold. 
It is prettily situated on the Bay of Bengal, 
with one of the best ocean drives in the 
world. But, all in all, the town has gone 
to sleep. 



En Route, Feb. 23, 1913. 

Bombay has a population of about one 
million, and is the most beautiful city in 
the East. Its streets are broad and well 
kept, its parks large and attractive, while 
its public buildings are most elaborate, the 
Victoria Railroad Station costing about two 
millions of dollars. Other structures are on 
the same elaborate scale. The splendid Taj 
Mahal Hotel would ornament any city, but 
the place is too European to particularly 
interest Americans in search of that which 
is novel. 

I was sorry to miss the Rev. Justin Ab- 
bott, but received a letter from him say- 
ing he was in the north country for a 
while, having given up active labors. He 
invited me to visit the Clark-Abbott Home 
for Little Boys, saying that he and Mrs. 
Abbott were much interested in that insti- 

43 



44 Breezes from the Orient 

tution. The mail was too late for me to 
respond to his invitation, much as I would 
have liked to do so. 

Every one goes to the Malabar Hill, 
where the most beautiful residences and the 
Parsee " Towers of Silence " are located. 
These " Towers " are several structures 
without roof or windows, and on a grating 
within, the naked bodies of deceased Par- 
sees are placed to be devoured by vultures 
that sit in rows on the walls awaiting their 
ghastly meal. Not even the Parsees are 
allowed within the towers, but a large 
model is fully explained by an attendant. 
The city reservoirs, near by, have been 
recently roofed over at the expense of the 
Parsees, as the inhabitants complained that 
the vultures dropped human ringers and 
toes into the reservoirs altogether too often 
for the good of the public health. 

We also visited a Mohammedan burning- 
ghat, and saw the whole ceremony, from 
the bringing in of the body, the baking of 



Breezes from the Orient 45 

the bread, the lighting of the wood by fire 
brought from the home of the deceased, 
and the burning — but to something more 
cheerful. 

On the ship from Port Said to Colombo, 
was a troupe of gymnasts bound for Aus- 
tralia, who each day put in a couple of 
hours' practice. Among the bunch was a 
ten-year-old boy who did a back somersault 
act, turning himself around twice while in 
the air. But that was easy compared with 
the gyrations one performs in the berth of 
an Indian railway sleeping-car. As a mat- 
ter of fact, the interval was so long from 
the time I left my berth until it came up 
and met me, that out of common politeness 
we needed an introduction, — and the 
meeting was not always of the kindest 
nature. 

The run from Bombay to Jaipur is some 
eight hundred miles, and most interesting. 
Morning found us at Baroda, perhaps the 
best known to Americans of all the native 



46 Breezes from the Orient 

provinces of India, from the fact that the 
ruling prince, H. H. Maharaja Sir Sayaiju 
Rao Gaekwar, G. C. S. L., has sent a son 
through Harvard, and with his wife and 
daughter (said to be the most beautiful 
woman in India) has more than once vis- 
ited America. 

The wife also has been exploited in 
American magazines as the woman who 
spends two thousand dollars a day on her 
living expenses in a home that cost about 
one million dollars. Among other trinkets 
she has solid gold dining-services, mats of 
pearls with centerpieces of diamonds, and 
a single gem worth $130,000; while his 
highness indulges in cannon of solid gold 
and pays his help four cents a day. He 
will probably be chagrined when he learns 
that we went through his capital without 
paying our respects. 

After passing Baroda, numbers of large 
gray apes were seen beside the tracks, some- 
times in bunches, but more frequently in 



Breezes from the Orient 47 

families. Black deer and jackals were also 
seen. The great fields of opium poppies in 
bloom were an attractive sight; that is, if 
anything can look attractive to any one who 
has been on the continual bump for thirty- 
six hours. 



Jaipur, India, Feb. 26, 19 13. 

Jaipur, with a population of 175,000, is 
the capital of a native state of 3,000,000 
inhabitants and the residence of the Ma- 
haraja. 

It is a walled city, surrounded by high 
hills, frowning forts, and one of the most 
powerful native cities of India. The streets 
are ablaze with Oriental color, while curi- 
ous conveyances, camels, elephants, pea- 
cocks and pungent odors, combine to make 
the place most interesting. 

One-seventh of the area included within 
its battlemented walls is occupied by the 
Maharaja, whose unique observatory, con- 
structed in 1 71 8, is famous the world over. 
Three hundred grooms are employed in his 
stable, and one thousand servants around 
his palace. He has three wives, six step- 
wives, and one hundred concubines. When 

48 



Breezes from the Orient 49 

one stops to consider the fuss the average 
American makes over a second wife, think 
of the inexpressible grief that must well up 
in that old sinner's diaphragm as one hun- 
dred and nine neglected better halves chide 
him for being late home from the club. We 
have all heard of the lonely wife of the 
society man, who, awaiting her husband's 
return, night after night, rocks the cradle 
with one foot and wipes her tears with the 
other, but a class of one hundred and nine, 
performing such an act, would have any of 
Gilbert and Sullivan's creations beaten a 
mile. Added to all this bliss, he has fight- 
ing elephants, man-eating tigers, and an 
artificial lake stocked with hungry croco- 
diles. He has the finest durbar in India. 
Carriages of silver for himself and canopies 
of gold for his beasts, all of which is going 
some when one considers he pays his serv- 
ants thirty dollars a year and his workmen 
receive but eight cents a day. 

They are talking of placing a guardian 



50 Breezes from the Orient 

over me, I am so crazy about buying curios, 
as attractive articles from five to ten hun- 
dred years old can be had on every hand. 

Last night a wedding was pulled off near 
our hotel. I was attracted by noise and 
brawl, and found a crowd in front of the 
house of the bride. The groom, on a richly 
caparisoned elephant, was preceded by a 
like beast bearing the flag of Jaipur. The 
groom's brothers were on Arabian horses. 
A bunch of nauch girls danced, the band 
played, red fire burned, and rockets pierced 
the sky. Finally, the groom, mounted on a 
horse, with spear in hand, charged and 
pierced the door of the home of the bride. 
On the steps, her wedding gifts of silks, 
brass and silver, useful and ornamental, 
were piled. These were appraised by a 
committee, and the father of the groom 
assessed for their aggregate value, which 
determined the amount of property he 
should apportion the groom. 

There are three days in each year in 



Breezes from the Orient 51 

which marriages are consecrated. This 
being one of the days, the city is ablaze with 
all the gorgeous colors of barbaric splendor, 
processions of elephants carrying grooms, 
horses ablaze with trappings, sedan-chairs 
with silken curtains, wedding feasts, brass 
bands and excitement. 

We were most fortunate in being in Jai- 
pur on one of their festive occasions. 

Ambur, the ancient capital, is five miles 
distant, which journey is made on elephants, 
but for real healthy enjoyment, I prefer a 
Pullman car. For some reason, the old 
palace at Ambur is not allowed to fall into 
decay, and the sacrificial stone which 
claimed its human victim each day for a 
full hundred years, and the wonderfully 
beautiful harem, are shown to visitors. 
From the high ramparts, one looks down 
on an ancient artificial pond constructed at 
great expense, now the drinking-place of 
jackals. Crumbling ramparts crown sur- 
rounding hills and tigers prowl through 



52 Breezes from the Orient 

streets once proud with marching feet, and 
having taken in the scene, one involuntarily 
murmurs, " What a strange, strange land! " 

One could write of Jaipur by the yard, 
but to write well requires more time than 
I have at my disposal, so please regard these 
stray thoughts with as much compassion as 
possible. 

If your ears were ringing with the sound 
of horns and noise of drums, and visions 
of Oriental excitement rilled your brain, 
perhaps your own efforts would sound as 
though you had passed a bad night. 



Delhi, India, March i, 1913. 

Delhi is perhaps the most interesting 
city in India. Somehow, the one thought 
that here constantly presents itself to my 
mind is the littleness of mankind, for the 
present city, with its population of 225,000, 
is the seventh city that has been erected on 
this spot, and as the world knows, India's 
new capital is here being constructed at a 
cost of — well, nobody knows how much, 
but millions upon millions. Of course, lit- 
tle is left of the earlier cities, but of the 
city of the Mogul Shah Jehan enough re- 
mains to impress all visitors that the scale 
of extravagance enjoyed was never before 
equaled and probably will never be re- 
peated. 

To begin with, the city is heavily walled. 
But within the outer wall is another walled 
city, where the Moguls resided and spent 

53 



54 Breezes from the Orient 

their untold millions wrung from the poor- 
est of the poor. The buildings are all of 
the finest architecture and most elaborate 
adornment. The Hall of Public Audience 
was embellished with birds and flowers 
made of precious stones, but most of the 
gems have been stolen. The Hall of Pri- 
vate Audience, though still beautiful, has 
been shorn of its ornaments. Its ceiling, 
once covered with beaten silver, has been 
looted. On a raised platform in the center 
of the hall once rested the wonderful Pea- 
cock Throne, with jewels valued at $30,- 
000,000, which was carried off to Persia, 
after perhaps the most appalling carnage 
that history records. 

In letters of gold in the Hall of Private 
Audience are the words : " If there is a 
heaven on earth, it is here — it is here." 
But it was an earthly paradise and did not 
endure. 

To write a history of Delhi would be to 
write a history of India, a tale of war, plun- 



Breezes from the Orient 55 

der, fire and sword. The jewels that once 
adorned her palaces were the loot of war, 
those pillaged from Delhi now ornament 
establishments in other lands, and thus 
civilization, like planets, goes round and 
round. On the " ridge " stands the lofty 
and ornate monument to the four hundred 
English Musketeers who fell victims of the 
Mutiny, and hard by stands a shaft erected 
two hundred years before Christ, which 
bears the words, " Thou Shalt Not Kill," 
while the plains below are now white with 
the tents of thousands of India's bravest 
soldiers. In looking at this picture, one 
naturally inquires how many thousand years 
ago did war really begin, and how many 
thousand years will it be before war will 
cease? 



Agra, India, March 2, 1913. 

I LIKE Agra because it isn't walled, there- 
fore the jackals don't keep me awake nights. 

Previous to India's occupation by the 
English, the government was run on the 
" catch as catch can " plan, otherwise known 
as the feudal system. When a man wanted 
more money than belonged to him, instead 
of monkeying with the tariff, he came right 
out in the open, captured his neighbor's 
city, looted the palace to adorn his own, 
and, to show that there were no hard feel- 
ings, invited the inhabitants of the captured 
city to come over and work four or five 
years, without pay, strengthening and ex- 
tending the walls of his own town. 

In the course of time, the population 
became so congested that the Europeans set- 
tled outside, of ttimes a couple of miles away 
(the new city of Delhi is to be five miles 
56 



Breezes from the Orient 57 

away from the present town), so when the 
jackals want a night out, being debarred 
from the natives by the city's walls, they 
gather their clans and descend upon the 
European quarters. I have slept on the 
Texas Bad Lands with the wolves howling 
about, and have attended recitals of classes 
in voice culture, but for downright blood- 
curdling howls, a bunch of jackals is enti- 
tled to first money. 

Agra was not walled, for the reason that 
it belonged to Delhi, that powerful capital, 
seventy miles away; but to prevent his 
friends from becoming too familiar, the 
Mogul enclosed the palace, which cost sev- 
eral millions, by the most beautiful wall in 
India, seventy feet high and a couple of 
miles in length. 

Agra has several monuments that would 
make famous any city, but its attraction par 
excellence is the incomparable " Taj Ma- 
hal," built of white marble and inlaid with 
precious stones. It is located in a garden 



58 Breezes from the Orient 

beautifully laid out with a view to setting 
off its wondrous charms. The Taj has been 
described as a work " conceived by Titans 
and finished by jewelers." It is one of the 
wonders of the world. Much has been 
written of this incomparable edifice, and 
all in unstinted praise. It is so light and 
airy you want to pat it, as you want to pat 
a splendid horse. Experts say it could not 
be reproduced in America for a hundred 
million of dollars. 

It was built by Shah Jehan as a tomb for 
his favorite wife, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, but 
nothing is said of his bunch of other wives, 
who married him in good faith, and who 
now sleep in unknown graves out in a barley 
field. Its base is washed by the sacred 
Jumna, and upon the opposite bank stands 
the foundation of a like tomb intended for 
himself. When the plans of both were 
finished, Jehan caused the architect's eyes to 
be dug out, that he might not build a more 
beautiful tomb for others. Whether this 



Breezes from the Orient 59 

had any influence upon his son, history does 
not state, but at any rate the young man 
gave his father a pressing invitation to 
spend the rest of his days within a few 
rooms in the palace in meditation and 
prayer while the young man thereafter 
handled the reins of authority. 

Jehan survived his imprisonment eight 
yearSj and while much sentimental stuff has 
been written about his affection for his 
beautiful wife, my own opinion is that he 
was an ambitious, cruel and partial old 
scamp. 

However, I am glad he built the Taj 
Mahal. 



Lucknow, India, March 6, 1913. 
There is a person living in Nashua who, 
in speaking of his neighbor, said, " He is so 
domed mean he is interesting." And that's 
about the condition of most of the hotels 
out this way. In Southern India there 
are none, and I have sometimes wished 
there were not in the rest of the land. Out- 
side of Bombay, Calcutta, and some of the 
larger places, they are constructed of stucco, 
one story high, and in the shape of a U, the 
first part being the office, dining-hall, etc. 
In the larger hotels one needs a trolley to 
go back and forth to dinner. The rooms 
all open on a porch, with doors which sel- 
dom can be closed, to say nothing of locking. 
The rooms are arranged in suites. The first 
room has the bed and is the larger; the room 
back is divided in halves, one being the 

dressing-room and the other the bath. Some 

60 



Breezes frOxM the Orient 6i 

of my friends in Nashua would injure them- 
selves internally by their laughter if they 
could examine one of those bathrooms. The 
floor is cement, sloping slightly toward the 
rear, where there is a hole knocked through 
the wall, affording convenient access for 
cockroaches (sometimes two inches long), 
rats, lizards, etc. The drain from the wash- 
bowl simply reaches to the floor and the 
waste goes drizzling off across the cement 
toward the orifice to which I have referred. 
The bath-tub is a big zinc affair. You take 
it down, clap your hands, and a " boy " 
appears from nobody knows where, fills it 
with water, and disappears. When you are 
through, just tip the water over on the floor. 
Other adjuncts are on even more primitive 
lines. 

Over the bed is a " punka," consisting of 
a long pole suspended horizontally by ropes 
from the high ceiling, from which hangs 
a cloth some two feet wide. Attached to 
the pole is a rope running through the wall. 



62 Breezes from the Orient 

If you are hot, simply clap your hands and 
sing out " Punka," and an unseen hand pulls 
the rope, swinging the suspended cloth back 
and forth, making a sort of primitive fan. 
Should you drop oft to sleep the " punka " 
boy does not, and the monotonous thing 
swings all night long. The food is from 
fair to poor, but the management is always 
courteous and obliging. Say to Mrs. Ken- 
dall, if she wants to see cruelty to animals 
in its pure and unadulterated form, she 
ought to spend a few months in Southern 
India. 



Benares, India, March 8, 1913. 

When one hears of a holy city he will 
make a straight guess to put it down as full 
of vermin, poverty, ignorance and filth. In 
fact, the holier the city, the more disgusting 
will you find its conditions. If you want 
all your senses shocked beyond repair, spend 
a few days scouring around such a town as 
this. 

Benares is the holiest city on the globe. 
More than two hundred millions of this 
world's people believe that to die within a 
radius of ten miles of its center, no matter 
how defiled they may be, is to ensure to 
them eternal bliss. The thousands upon 
thousands who come here annually to die 
is appalling. And the thousands who have 
their bodies thrown into the river is worse. 
These float past every day. Up at Cawn- 

63 



64 Breezes from the Orient 

pore, while on the Mutiny massacre ghat, 
one came ashore within thirty feet of me. 

Then there are thousands who have their 
bodies brought to the river's shore to be 
burned, and have their ashes cast into the 
holy stream. Any morning, at Benares, 
bodies can be seen partly in the river and 
partly on shore, awaiting their turn to be 
cremated. Consider all this, and then think 
of the scores, and ofttimes thousands, who 
each morning bathe and drink of the pol- 
luted water. 

We reached the river about seven o'clock 
and floated a mile or more past the strange 
spectacle. Then I walked back and took 
in the scenes at close range. I will not tell 
just what I saw, but I used my camera 
freely. 

If my memory serves me right, the av- 
erage life of a man in the United States is 
forty-four years; in India, twenty-three 
years; and I should suppose in Benares it 
ought to be about fifteen minutes, for the 



Breezes from the Orient 65 

squalid filth and degradation which fill the 
city's streets is about as appalling as its 
river bank. 

The sacred cow stables herself in the 
temples, causing visitors to pick their way 
around on their boot heels, while holy men 
with naked bodies and long hair, both be- 
smeared with mud and offal, bring food to 
the vermin-covered brutes that infest the 
monkey temple. Between thirty and forty- 
bulls are here in prison, serving sentence 
under committal papers, after having had 
a regular trial and found guilty of being 
disturbers of the peace. 

The question one naturally asks himself 
is: What is to be the end of all this? In- 
dia's soil has been constantly drained of 
its producing qualities for three thousand 
years — some say thirty thousand years. 
And as the population has increased and 
the land become less productive, they have 
met the problem by learning to exist on less, 
until to-day they have only about eight cents 



66 Breezes from the Orient 

a day apiece to meet the necessities of life, 
— and scientific agencies are at work all 
over the empire to diminish the death-rate. 
Surely the great question in India is not 
what will happen to people in the next 
world, but how to keep them from starva- 
tion in this. 

Fanaticism and poverty are handmaidens 
the wide world over. If you want to con- 
vince this people how to get to the next 
world, I believe the surest way is to first 
show them how to live in this, how to pro- 
duce more, so as to become stronger in body 
and in mind. When I took up my pen, it 
was furthest from my thoughts to drift into 
preachment, but man is so constructed that 
he unconsciously absorbs his surroundings, 
and in this atmosphere one's mind is not 
in fit condition to write a letter. 



Darjeeling, India, March 12, 1913. 

DARJEELING will hardly interest your 
readers, as they probably do not know a 
great deal about the place, but were they 
here most of them would certainly sit up 
and take notice. 

The village is situated in the north of 
Bengal, on a narrow ridge of land seven 
thousand feet high, and is perhaps the great- 
est scenic town in the world. With the 
Himalayas for a background, the mountain 
view is unrivaled. I have ascended Pike's 
Peak by the highest railroad in America 
and looked off across the Great Plains. I 
have ascended the Gornergrat by the high- 
est railroad in Europe and stood before the 
giant tusk of the Matterhorn. I have 
climbed the sacred mountain of Mexico, 
where, across the valley, superb Popocate- 
petl rears its majestic cone. I have seen the 

67 



68 Breezes from the Orient 

mist rise in great sheets from the side of 
mighty St. Stephen in the Canadian Sel- 
kirks. But they are all dwarfed by the 
awful grandeur of the scene which here 
greets one's eyes. 

To obtain this view, we traveled from 
Benares all Saturday night, all day Sunday, 
Sunday night, and until two o'clock Mon- 
day afternoon, and it is a twenty-hour run 
back to Calcutta, but the scene is amply 
worth the effort. Our own Mt. Washing- 
ton, 6,000 feet high, has attractions peculiar 
to itself, but notice some of the giants that 
greet one's eyes from Darjeeling: Mt. 
Everest, 29,062 feet high; Kinchinjinga, 
28,156 feet; Janin, 25,304; Kabra, 24,015; 
Chumacari, 23,948; Omkai, 23,176; Pan- 
din, 22,017; and lesser heights in an almost 
endless list. That we might see the sun 
rise on Mt. Everest, we arose at three A. M. 
and in the starlight ascended Tiger Hill, a 
six-mile pony climb, the last part through 
six inches of snow, but, as usual, mists ob- 



Breezes from the Orient 69 

scured the coveted peak. But Tibet was 
only sixty miles away, and we gazed upon 
the icy peaks of the " roof of the world " to 
our heart's content. And what shall I say 
of the toy railroad with its two-foot gauge 
that took us fifty-two miles up from Sili- 
guri, twisting and shuttling in a most con- 
fusing way? 

I have heard the old fable of an engineer 
on a West Virginia railroad who, upon 
seeing a red light ahead, stopped, and found 
it to be a lantern on the rear of his own 
train, but on this road on several curves the 
platform of the rear car is within speaking 
distance of the engine. And then there is 
the great Ranjit River. You notice a great 
rift in the rocks, you hear a deep roar, but 
the river is so far below you that you see 
no water. 

Soon after leaving Siliguri, you look 
down on ferns twenty feet high, upon which 
wild elephants feed, then you work up into 
the great tea estates, and finally into the 



70 Breezes from the Orient 

vegetation of the north temperate zone. It 
is curious to see rhododendrons in full 
bloom, forty feet high, with smooth, 
straight trunks. 

Being a resort, the town cannot be said 
to possess much of native population, but 
added to sects and castes up from the south, 
with garbs and startling color effects pecul- 
iar to a sun-kissed people, there are numer- 
ous representatives of the sturdy tribes of 
the north who center here to trade. 

But the attraction next to the mountains 
themselves, is the marvelous color effects of 
sunrise and sunset. Shah Jehan, up in 
Delhi, wrote on his Hall of Private Audi- 
ence, " If there is a heaven on earth, it is 
here." But Shah Jehan never saw the sun- 
rise glow from Darjeeling. 



Darjeeling, India, March 13, 191 3. 

Last night I doped out a scheme that is 
bound to settle for all time the much mooted 
Sunday automobile question, and I am so 
nervous it seems I shall fly. Riches and 
honor are within my grasp, and my Adonis 
form will surely embellish the Hall of 
Fame. 

Edison may be well enough in his line, 
but nothing has been launched upon man- 
kind that for brilliant conception and last- 
ing benefit compares with my idea, since 
George Small floated his famous self-pro- 
peller. But, land sakes, ain't I excited! I 
have nervous dyspepsia, my hair is falling 
off, and the big interests out this way say 
I really talk like Rockefeller. The head 
waiter informed me, at the breakfast-table, 
that I looked as though I had passed a bad 
night, but I respectfully handed him back 

71 



72 Breezes from the Orient 

his bromide by saying it was a case of a 
remarkable intellect somewhat overworked. 

But how shall I dispose of my wealth? 
I cabled Carnegie early this A. M. for his 
opinion regarding libraries and Old Ladies' 
Homes. He replies he has found even 
giving away money has its tribulations, and 
suggests, as long as I am in India, that I 
start a harem. As Mrs. Harris does not 
answer my cable to her about the Carnegie 
proposition, I fear she may be ill. She 
usually is very prompt with her opinions. 

In Jaipur, the Maharaja, I was told, has 
three wives, six step-wives and one hundred 
concubines; and I have wired his secretary, 
to learn if all is joy and happiness down 
that way, also if the whole bunch require 
new spring millinery at one and the same 
time. 

I wish, Burtt, that you too could scintil- 
late in the possession of unbounded wealth, 
for words fail to express my uncurbed de- 
light, but it's an awful strain. Of course, 



Breezes from the Orient 73 

I haven't the money yet, but I am just as 
sure of it as the Great Belcher Mine pro- 
moters were sure of their proposition pan- 
ning out big. 

Listen! In the Orient, penny-in-the-slot 
weighing-machines eject a card on which 
is printed the day of the month and your 
exact weight, and around here they pray 
by machinery. A prayer is placed in a cone 
geared to a windmill or water-wheel, and 
at each turn of the cone the prayer is sup- 
posed to be repeated, and thus the owner 
prays without ceasing. 

Years ago, New England clergymen 
dreaded stormy Sundays, but nowadays it 
is the bright June Sabbaths that fill their 
ears with Honk-Honk and their hearts with 
sorrow. 

It's a wise fellow who can convert his 
lemons of fate into a salable beverage, and 
I propose that my wakeful night shall sup- 
port me in luxury the rest of my days. 

My idea is this: By the speedometer 



74 Breezes from the Orient 

method, attach to the dash of an automobile 
a prayer-cone that will revolve according 
to the speed of the car. The longer and 
faster the auto travels, the more the prayer 
is repeated. At the end of the trip, press 
a button, and out drops a card reading some- 
thing as follows: "This is to certify that 
Mr. Awful Speed prayed 79,954 times on 
Sunday, June 29th, 1913. (Signed) The 
Harris Prayer Wheel Co." A carbon du- 
plicate drops out with each ticket, the orig- 
inal to be kept by the owner's wife, the copy 
to be placed in the weekly offering envelope 
for the records of the Church. Won't it be 
just grand to be able to bowl over hill and 
dale on pleasant Sundays, absorbing the 
nectar of forests, the silent beauty of river 
and lake, and the grandeur of lofty moun- 
tains, all the while unconsciously record- 
ing words of thanksgiving and songs of 
praise? 

Like all schemes for human betterment, 
personal profit is the least consideration, 



Breezes from the Orient 75 

consequently, I have formulated the follow- 
ing generous financial plan: 

Capital . . . $1,000,000 
Preferred Stock . 1,000 

Common Stock . 999,000 

The common and preferred stock to share 
alike as to earnings, but the preferred stock 
to assume all debts. The preferred to be 
placed on the market (for a limited time) 
at par. All the common stock to go to the 
promoter for his idea and good will. The 
nature of the invention is such as to elicit 
the unsolicited endorsement of all having 
the welfare of the community at heart. 

I wish you would secure an option on 
the Graves land, down by the Boat Club 
House, for a plant. The fact that the river 
overflows there every two or three years 
won't matter, as we shall water the stock 
occasionally anyway. If money is needed 
to bind the land deal, call on the 1920 
Movement Association. Get the city to 



76 Breezes from the Orient 

exempt the entire property from taxation 
for ten years, with the understanding that 
all future additions shall be turned over to 
a Holding Company with like exemption, 
as I love my home city and want to keep 
the tax rate as low as possible. 

It's just great to be rich. Hooray! Hoo- 
ray! 

P. S. The A. L. A. has just wired for me 
to be sure to rig the cone so it will work 
while repairing tire troubles on the road. 



Calcutta, March 16, 1913. 
When one stops to consider the vast 
amount of sin that has been washed from 
the millions of Hindus who bathe in the 
sacred river all along its course of fifteen 
hundred miles, it is not surprising that land 
is accumulating in the delta of the Ganges 
more rapidly than at any other portion of 
the globe. In fact, the deposit is so great 
that the Ganges proper separates into sev- 
eral streams, the larger being called the 
Hugli River, upon which stream, sixty 
miles from the open sea, Calcutta, with its 
million and more inhabitants, is situated. 
The town is all agog about the capital of 
India being removed from here to Delhi, 
but this isn't the first time the place has been 
sold out. Way back in 1600 and something 
the Maharaja was attended by a physician 
of the East India Company, who, being of 

77 



78 Breezes from the Orient 

a retiring nature, shrank from presenting a 
bill of $7.50 to his highness, but finally sub- 
dued his modesty and accepted, in settle- 
ment, three native villages, upon which land 
the present city stands. When you meet 
with one of these shrinking natures who are 
" willing to leave the price entirely with 
you," better watch out. 

I notice by the morning news that Lady 
So and So, over in England, has read be- 
fore a certain function a paper decrying the 
habit of low-caste Indian women wearing 
strings of coins about their necks. These 
chains may possibly be worth twenty rupees, 
and it's dollars to doughnuts that Lady So 
and So was adorned with at least five hun- 
dred dollars' worth of diamonds. Evi- 
dently, according to her idea, a personal 
adornment of twenty rupees in the coin of 
the realm is evidence of barbaric depravity 
that needs immediate missionary attention, 
while five hundred dollars' worth of dia- 
monds is a badge of a long line of noble 



Breezes from the Orient 79 

ancestry, and the pity of it is that so many 
American women are in sympathy with the 
same notion. At railway stations, we fre- 
quently see missionaries who come to the 
train with an ardent desire that we have a 
safe journey and incidentally leave a hun- 
dred or more rupees to assist in their splen- 
did work. Down at Madura, one of them 
tackled me, and incidentally I asked how 
old he thought I was. The old fellow 
stepped back, and after eyeing me with the 
look of a philosopher, said he would place 
me between eighty and eighty-five. Now 
you understand why my sympathy for their 
cause is so weak-kneed. 

Let's see, I was writing about Calcutta. 
Well, when one has stated that it is a well 
built city, after modern English ideas, 
adorned with splendid parks and ornate 
public buildings, its story is half told. 
Mention should be made, however, of its 
banyan-tree, the largest in the world. It 
is 159 years old; number of aerial roots, 



80 Breezes from the Orient 

562; circumference of trunk, 51 feet; 
height, 85 feet; circumference of crown, 
997 feet. The government house is perhaps 
the city's finest structure, which, I heard 
whispered, has a heroic graft record, sec- 
ond only to Albany and Harrisburg. I 
might add that, while England receives no 
direct tax from India, the splendid public 
buildings that adorn nearly every city, are 
built largely by the English and paid for 
by the Indian people. Added to this are 
the thousands of English civil service men 
and the hundreds of thousands of English 
soldiers, paid for in the same way. It is 
true that England has been of immense serv- 
ice to India, but she needs no advisory board 
to see to it that Britain is taking good care 
of herself. 

I have a letter from the Rev. Harry I. 
Marshall, saying that he is coming down 
from his mission to Rangoon to show me 
the elephants, and he incidentally remarks 
that I can rest assured that the temperature 



Breezes from the Orient 8i 

will give me a warm welcome. I am glad 
he is going to show me the elephants, as I 
am growing to be quite fond of the beasts. 
If it wasn't for keeping their trunks packed, 
I am not sure but what I should bring one 
home. 

We are all well and are leaving in the 
morning for an eight-hundred-mile sail 
across the Bay of Bengal to Burma. 



Rangoon, Burma, March 20, 1913. 
WHEN the English stole the throne, of 
Burma and shipped it over to the museum 
in Calcutta, by some misunderstanding or 
oversight they left the Rangoon River, up 
which stream we sailed some forty miles to 
the city. Perhaps I should not have used 
the word " stole," but the term is not quite 
clear in my mind. For example, had an 
Englishman come here with an assistant and 
appropriated a goat, he would have been 
branded a thief and got thirty days; but to 
descend with a thousand soldiers and gobble 
the whole country, creates him a hero, and 
his noble form is cast in bronze, seated on 
one of those arch-necked, big-tailed horses 
known only to sculptors. I suppose if I 
understood the " white man's burden " busi- 
ness a little better, all would be clear, but 

the proposition looks to me like a kind of 

82 



Breezes from the Orient 83 

a national malady, something on the chills 
and fever order, — the fever coming on only 
when there is something mighty good in 
sight. Who ever heard of the nation's 
going into tantrums over the Eskimos? 
But should a few hundred millions of gold 
be discovered up there, in a trice, a wail 
would go up that would be heard as far as 
that Revolutionary shot over in Lexington, 
as to what country should assume control 
and " keep the distressed people from them- 
selves." 

Rangoon is for the large part a modern 
city, four-fifths of its population of a quar- 
ter of a million having been acquired within 
the last generation, but the town has been 
a holy place for the last twenty-five hundred 
years, and while the exports from its great 
rice, timber and oil mills require a large 
amount of shipping, it is the famous Shue- 
Dagon pagoda that attracts countless pil- 
grims from not only all parts of Burma, 
but from Siam, Korea and Ceylon. The 



84 Breezes from the Orient 

pile stands upon an artificial terrace 166 
feet high and about 900 feet square, from 
the center of which rises the gold-covered 
pagoda, 1,335 ^ eet m circumference and 
370 feet high, surmounted by a fancy iron- 
work top, from which are suspended mul- 
titudes of gold and silver jeweled bells, said 
to have cost over a quarter of a million of 
dollars. 

The pagoda proper is surrounded with 
a confused mass of small pagodas; Bud- 
dhas and Gautamas of all sizes, kinds and 
colors ; high altars, flowers, burnt offerings, 
streamers and bells, the largest bell weigh- 
ing forty-two and a half tons. As one has 
said : " The platform is never deserted. 
Even long after midnight, the voice of the 
worshipper can be heard chanting his pious 
inspirations, while on feast days, the laugh- 
ing, joyous crowd of men and women in gay 
national dress, makes the platform of the 
Shue-Dagon one of the finest sights of the 
world." And all this because the pagoda 



Breezes from the Orient 85 

contains three hairs from the prophet's 
beard! I saw one of Mahomet's whiskers 
in the big mosque up in Delhi. It was about 
seven inches in length, and a bright saffron 
red — what a sight the old fellow must have 
been! 

I think the missionaries are a great thing 
in this country; there ought to be more. 
I wish there were some connected with this 
hotel, for there is something about this cli- 
mate that keeps me awake till about three 
A. M., when I drop into a deep slumber, 
and at six A. M. the room-boy wakes me with 
"Tea, master!" I nod and drop off to 
sleep. In about half an hour in he comes 
with a tray of toast and fruit. I rise, par- 
take, and snooze off once more, when the 
boy raps loudly, comes in and takes the 
tray, and in about fifteen minutes he reap- 
pears with the laconic phrase, " Bath ready, 
master." And so the good work goes on 
until the breakfast hour at nine-thirty. If 
the Rev. Harry Marshall could have heard 



86 Breezes from the Orient 

what I told the rascal of a room-boy this 
morning, he would have sent his whole 
force from Irrawaddy to endeavor to per- 
suade me to repent of the language I used. 

I went to a native theater last night. I 
say " night," as the show opened at ten, and 
finished, I understand, somewhere around 
three or four A. M. The place was made of 
bamboo poles and matting, and accommo- 
dated about a thousand persons. Everybody 
sat on matting on the ground. Most of the 
women were smoking big cigarettes as large 
as tallow candles, which smelled like a 
boiled dinner burning on to the kettle. Our 
party was up in front, and seemed to attract 
about as much attention as the performers. 

The Rev. Marshall was not able to meet 
me on account of the sudden illness of a 
child. We sail for Penang, on the Malay 
Peninsula, to-morrow. 



PENANG, March 23, 1913. 

I HEARD of a fellow the other day who 
had been down to Java and discovered an 
herb that will cause whiskers to grow 
ten inches a week, and have sent word 
to him that, while it seemed like a good 
thing, he ought to have some kind of an 
antidote to go with it. Otherwise, in the 
course of a few months, a man would be 
walking all over the hair on his face. I 
suppose the man, by this time, is dodging 
tigers and crocodiles down in the jungle, 
trying to find some root that will do the 
trick. If he is successful, I may bring home 
a new industry for Nashua, to be known as 
the Great Americo-Indo Whisker Growing 
Co., and suggest that the Board of Trade 
be on the lookout for some suitable loca- 
tion. 

I really believe this insufferable heat is 
87 



88 Breezes from the Orient 

affecting my mind, as I don't know whether 
to date this Penang or Georgetown. It is 
down on the map as Penang, but now the 
ship has dropped her mud-hooks, I find 
Penang to be an island some eight miles 
across, upon which is located s the city of 
Georgetown, with a population of about 
150,000; but I am going to call it Penang, 
as this name sounds more foreign. If any 
one wants to cable me about the Whisker 
Company, tell him to put the accent on the 
last syllable, otherwise it might not be de- 
livered. 

I am glad they gave this town such an 
ordinary name, for I started out to describe 
the place, but excepting its fine Chinese 
temple, I can't find anything to describe, 
as the city is too new to possess anything 
historic, and too hot to be attractive. How- 
ever, its mountainous background is su- 
perb. 

Maybe it's loss of sleep that is affecting 
my brain, for the windows are kept open, 



Breezes from the Orient 89 

and the incessant jabbering of the natives, 
which is kept up till long after midnight, 
would put a New England cat-fight to 
shame. Then the top of the shade trees 
come opposite my window, and by half-past 
three, the dozens of crows that occupy their 
branches start up an incessant cawing, which 
lasts until the room-boy begins his every- 
fifteen-minutes fool inquiry about tea and 
baths and other things. Surely, this globe- 
trotting business is not one continual round 
of pleasure. 

While I was taking a midday rest some 
days ago, there occurred a tragedy in one 
act, more or less on the following lines, the 
subject being the action of solar heat on the 
brain of the genus homo. 

I said to my servant: " Do you know that 
I am a philosopher? " Lazarus nodded 
doubtfully, but respectfully, and replied: 
" Yes, master." " Are you troubled with a 
premature ossification of the cranial su- 
tures? " " Master, the various lobes of my 



9o Breezes from the Orient 

brain are developed to an unusual extent." 
" Are you possessed of courage? " " I am 
descended from a long line of famous tiger 
fighters." " Have you patience and forti- 
tude? " " I have lived for five years next 
door to a missionary." " Lazarus, all is 
well; draw near to me and listen." And 
pointing from the open window, I said : 

" Yonder is a palanquin with its curtains 
'drawn, within is a Mohammedan woman 
who has taken the veil, which is to say, she 
is married, therefore, nevermore can any 
male, save her husband, father, brother or 
child, look upon her face. Although she 
is now hidden from the natural eye, the lens 
of my camera is so powerful that it can 
penetrate the covering of the palanquin and 
record the features of the woman. But, 
were the covering painted with a black 
coating, the lens would not then penetrate 
the covering, and no picture could be 
taken." 

Lazarus shifted his position uneasily, but 



Breezes from the Orient 91 

hesitatingly allowed that he was following 
my thoughts. " Now, a similar theory holds 
good regarding the action of the fierce rays 
of the tropic sun, Which penetrate the skin 
of a white man with such deadly results, 
compelling him to protect his head with a 
half-inch covering of pith or cork, while in 
the skin of a native, the Creator in His in- 
finite wisdom has incorporated a black sub- 
stance that resists the shafts of heat as the 
black coating I have referred to in a palan- 
quin resists the lens of a camera. This is 
why the colored man requires nothing to 
protect him from the sun's heat. Does all 
I am saying penetrate the pigments beneath 
your cuticle, Lazarus? " 

The servant did not reply, but his breath 
came thick and fast, and from his incoherent 
mutterings, as he shuffled unsteadily toward 
the door, I caught these disconnected words, 
" Master — gone — daffy." 

After five days more of this unbearable 
heat, we turn our faces northward toward 



92 Breezes from the Orient 

China and Japan, and I am living in bliss- 
ful anticipation that the cool breezes will 
bring my depleted senses to their normal 
condition. 



Singapore, March 27, 191 3. 

Singapore, with its 250,000 inhabitants, 
located at the tip end of the Malay Penin- 
sula, about seventy-five miles north of the 
equator, is a well built city after modern 
lines, and one of the important coaling sta- 
tions of the world. Other than this fact, 
its beautiful harbor and botanical gardens, 
the place is chiefly noted for its abun- 
dant and never failing supply of vice and 
torrid heat. 

When I left Nashua, the last thing I had 
in mind was to write letters for publication, 
and I indulge in them for the reason that 
I find no time to communicate with my 
friends individually, and even these letters 
are so hastily written, and under such con- 
fusing circumstances, that I presume I shall 
sorely regret my rashness; but now that I 

93 



94 Breezes from the Orient 

am about to bid good-by to that long string 
of countries over which the British have a 
watchful eye, I am going to unburden my 
mind of a few impressions gathered on the 
way. 

Few Americans realize what a tremen- 
dous task England has on her hands, or how 
vast are her financial interests down this 
way. To begin with, of the rising 1,500,- 
000,000 human beings who people the earth, 
one in every six lives in India, which, up to 
the advent of the British, had for unknown 
ages been engaged in almost constant war- 
fare. " The appalling sufferings caused by 
the early invaders are without a parallel, 
frequently ending in an almost total destruc- 
tion of both contending parties. The tribal 
struggles were no less severe; from the more 
important, the country did not recover its 
population for ages. Dynasty after dy- 
nasty succeeded each other by the use of 
the sword." Never in its whole history has 
the land enjoyed such a season of peace and 



Breezes from the Orient 95 

prosperity as since England assumed the 
reins of government. 

While it would be childish to assert that 
England's occupation of the country is for 
philanthropic reasons, it would be unfair 
not to give her full credit for the immense 
advantage she has been to India in estab- 
lishing a stable government, the introduc- 
tion of modern methods of agriculture and 
transportation, providing and enforcing ed- 
ucation and suppressing barbaric customs 
and ceremonies. I mention agriculture 
first, for the reason that of India's 300,- 
000,000 people, 250,000,000 get their living 
from the soil. As one has said, water for 
their fields means food and comfort; lack 
of it, fever and famine. And when famine 
has occurred it has meant death by starva- 
tion of numbers equal to the population of 
the whole western division of the United 
States. To prevent a recurrence of such 
horrors, England has caused to be con- 
structed irrigating-canals of all sizes, aggre- 



96 Breezes from the Orient 

gating over 30,000 miles in length, water- 
ing more than 7,000,000 acres of land ; con- 
necting the different parts of the country 
with rising 40,000 miles of railroad, so that 
should drouth occur in one portion of the 
empire, food can quickly be transported 
from their more fortunate neighbors. 
Should fever or plague occur, so vast is 
the cobweb of wires that connect and cover 
the land that the department would prob- 
ably hear of a case before relatives located 
but a few miles away. 

In this hasty trip of three thousand miles 
through the empire, I have endeavored to 
see and hear as best I could, and from the 
confusing mass of strange sights and condi- 
tions, I would consider the religious cus- 
toms, which hold the land with a grip of 
iron, as its greatest curse. From the almost 
endless number of faiths, I will refer to the 
Hindu, as it is the more important. More 
than 200,000,000 of India's people class 
themselves in this faith. Caste and child 



Breezes from the Orient 97 

marriage are among the more pernicious of 
its teachings. Child marriage is wholly a 
mercenary transaction, arranged by the par- 
ents of the contracting parties, based on the 
belief that for a man to die without a son 
to light his funeral pyre is a calamity most 
appalling. But, while the elaborate and 
expensive marriage of the children ofttimes 
ruins the girl's family financially, a later 
confirmation is necessary before the couple 
live as husband and wife. In the meantime, 
should the lad die, the girl becomes a 
widow, is stripped of all property rights, 
jewels and clothing, given a coarse cotton 
cloth as a garment, must keep her head 
shaven as a mark of disgrace, can never 
remarry, and becomes a sort of slave to her 
husband's parents. As a result of the child 
marriage system, there are 26,000,000 wid- 
ows in India, of whom over 400,000 are less 
than fifteen years of age; and the number 
is increasing, for before the custom was sup- 
pressed by the English, many widows were 



98 Breezes from the Orient 

burned with the bodies of their husbands. 
I have watched the expression on the face 
of an aged sonless widow, as she lighted the 
funeral pyre of her departed husband, but 
what must have been the look of horror on 
the face of him who applied the torch to 
the wood on which the dead body of his son 
was laid and the live body of his daughter- 
in-law was bound. I have but touched the 
hem of the garment that causes India, with 
her 300,000,000 souls, to be one of the weak- 
est nations of the earth. 

The caste system is something I do not 
fully understand. If anybody understands 
it, I was unfortunate in not meeting him^ 
but some of its workings are sufficiently 
flagrant to arrest the attention of the most 
careless observer. The Hindu religion 
teaches that man was created on four dis- 
tinct and separate planes. The Brahmins 
were from the head and were the thinkers ; 
the Kashattriyas from the chest and were 
the warriors; the Vaisyas from the bowels 



Breezes from the Orient 99 

and were the merchants, farmers, etc.; 
while the toilers, or the Sudras, were from 
the feet. 

The two middle classes have become un- 
important, but between the Brahmins and 
the Sudras is a barrier insurmountable, 
before which wealth, talents, honors and 
social attainment profoundly bow. The 
poorest Brahmin would starve before he 
would eat from the golden plate of the low- 
caste Maharaja. On the contrary, in cer- 
tain sections, where Brahmin influence is 
great, it is said that an artisan will pollute 
the Maharaja twenty-four feet away, cul- 
tivators of the soil forty-eight feet, and the 
beef-eating pariah sixty-four feet. Until 
quite recently, I am told, in certain parts 
of India the low-caste man was expected 
to leave the road when he saw a Brahmin 
approaching, as even the shadow of a low- 
caste man would defile a Brahmin. In 
Jaipur, I was reminded of my despised 
origin, when a bunch of naked street urchins 



ioo Breezes from the Orient 

drew back in horror and disgust as I offered 
them some sweetmeats that were defiled by 
my unholy touch. 

To be sure, a Brahmin may become im- 
mune from certain pollutions by improving 
his first opportunity to bathe, and for this 
reason they are physically the cleanest peo- 
ple on earth, but other defilements cannot 
be so removed. In such case, the Brahmin 
loses caste, and his children and children's 
children become outcasts forever. 

Hotel cooks and waiters are frequently 
Brahmins, as all castes can partake of their 
cooking and serving. To enumerate a list 
of defilements would fill a volume. I im- 
agine some of your readers are saying what 
a horrible thing is caste, and yet in America, 
where all are supposed to be free and equal, 
how long would we have to search to find 
a household in which it would be considered 
a disgrace for the cook to eat with the fam- 
ily? And if you will take the trouble to 
look long enough and hard enough, you 



Breezes from the Orient ioi 

may possibly resurrect one or two more 
American customs not so very far from the 
Hindu caste system, which we pretend to 
so thoroughly despise and feel it our duty 
to contribute of our means to suppress. 
Wouldn't it be interesting to really know 
just how many pretenders there are in 
America? Immorality is rare among the 
natives of India. Drunkenness, which is 
the chief cause of poverty both in England 
and America, is here almost unknown. I 
traveled the byways and hedges of nearly all 
India's large cities, some with more than a 
million inhabitants, and have seen but one 
intoxicated person, and he was an English- 
man. 

I am aware that this is not a very cheer- 
ful letter to write at the end, about an enjoy- 
able trip through an extremely interesting 
country, where I have been provided with 
exceptional opportunities for studying its 
people, but I am tired of its nakedness, pov- 
erty and sickening superstitions. A look of 



102 Breezes from the Orient 

despair covers all faces, particularly that of 
the women. In a country where children 
do not laugh, there exists some deep-seated 
wrong. 



Hongkong, China, April 3, 191 3. 

To an outsider, it would appear that, a 
couple of generations ago, England must 
have spread out a map and spotted all the 
strategic points from the Emerald Isle on 
to China, and those she could not purchase 
or obtain by treaty, in the language of diplo- 
macy, she " obtained." At any rate, you 
find the British in full control of Gibraltar, 
Malta, Port Said, Aden, Ceylon, India, 
Burma, Penang, Singapore and Hongkong. 

Few Celestials are. found west of Cal- 
cutta, but from that city eastward, China, 
with its population equal to the whole of 
Europe, has spilled its inhabitants in liberal 
quantities all along the line, who, like the 
Jews, have won a prominence all out of 
proportion to their numbers. They are the 
money-changers all through the East, and 

in Burma are favorites in the matrimonial 
103 



104 Breezes from the Orient 

market. But the height of a Chinaman's 
ambition is to join his daughter in marriage 
to a European. In Singapore, which is one 
of the best built and best cared for cities 
of the Orient, most of its beautiful homes, 
well kept grounds and stylish liveries are 
the property of Chinese, and I have a deep- 
rooted notion that the real Chinaman is a 
much better man than we are in the habit 
of giving him credit for. The Jap is imi- 
tative, and wants to trick a living out of the 
world by his wits, but John expects and is 
willing to earn every dollar he receives. I 
believe a people as hardy, honest, industri- 
ous and frugal as they, are bound sooner 
or later to be heard from, and that Japan 
had better hurry up and have all the fun 
she expects to have with them during the 
present generation. 

They are despised for the reason that they 
are willing to do more work for their money 
than any other people. When Huntington 
and his crowd constructed our Pacific rail- 



Breezes from the Orient 105 

roads, I am told, they figured their costs on 
American labor, then imported Celestials to 
do the work, which was the basis of their 
colossal fortunes. There are many prune 
orchards in California being cut down that 
could be profitably worked were Chinese 
labor allowed. Just why a farmer should 
be legislated out of labor that is entirely 
proper for a railroad magnate, I will leave 
for some other fellow to answer. The 
American opinion of the race is greatly 
warped because it is the coolies who come 
to our shores. When Li Hung Chang paid 
us a visit we saw the real article. The im- 
pression he left was favorable, and his re- 
mark, when shown the New York stock 
market ticker, that he preferred to gamble 
on a game where he knew who was shuffling 
the cards, is still regarded as one of the 
brightest commentaries on America's great- 
est game of chance. 

I have noticed this fact all along the line, 
that to an American every habit, custom 



106 Breezes from the Orient 

and religion that is not exactly as we have 
it at home, is entirely wrong. 

We talk glibly of China's " seedling mass 
of humanity " without stopping to learn 
that the average population to the square 
mile is only about two-thirds that of Eu- 
rope, and while reciting Canton's congested 
population, leave the impression that the 
tenement districts of New York appear 
lonesome and pining for neighbors. Tell 
me, is it any more barbaric for a Celestial 
to indulge his tasite for eggs not strictly 
fresh, than for an American to acquire a 
liking for cheese kept over from a former 
dynasty? 

India's greatest curse is child marriage, 
and China's sin is the insane desire to leave 
a lot of sons to assist their souls along to 
the future world; a notion that encourages 
a birth-rate about three times that of Eu- 
rope and an infant mortality greater than 
that of any other land. 

Hongkong is an island at the mouth of 



Breezes from the Orient 107 

the Pearl River, and the British stronghold 
in China. The town is named Victoria, and 
picturesquely situated on the side of a small 
mountain called the " Peak," where most of 
the better European residences are located, 
and which are reached by cable tramways. 
The principal street leads to Happy Valley, 
where is found the strange combination of 
several cemeteries and a race course. 

I suppose these letters appear very tame 
because they do not recount hair-raising 
stories of escapes from snakes and jungle 
beasts, but the world has grown too small 
for that kind of stuff. I was amused, how- 
ever, down at Rangoon, at a couple of post- 
cards. One was labeled " Malay women," 
and displayed several females clothed in 
sunshine. The other was called " Euro- 
pean ladies," and depicted six young women 
clothed in tights like acrobats. One was 
about as truthful as the other. As a mat- 
ter of fact, I haven't yet seen a woman 
who wasn't modestly clothed, and to my 



108 Breezes from the Orient 

taste, the better class of Indian women, with 
their soft silks of charming color, so artis- 
tically draped, are among the best dressed 
ladies in the world. 

From here we go to Canton and Macao. 



Canton, China, April 4, 1913. 

There is not much doing here in the 
camera line, as the Chinese seriously object 
to having their pictures taken, except under 
favorable conditions. They have a notion 
that their souls will keep doing through all 
eternity just what the camera happens to 
record. 

Hongkong is a mountain peak three and 
a half miles wide and eighteen hundred feet 
high. Many of its 350,000 inhabitants cling 
to its precipitous sides as a browntail moth 
nest clings to a tree. As the streets are too 
steep for rickshaws, people are carried by 
coolies in a sort of a chair. While ascend- 
ing the mountain in that manner, I endeav- 
ored to photograph our party, which nearly 
raised a riot, but the same coolies were 
tickled to death to be snapped while being 

109 



no Breezes from the Orient 

paid off when their toilsome job was fin- 
ished. 

The great fad here is ancestral worship, 
and we arrived just in the height of the sea- 
son; boats and conveyances being crowded 
to their limit by pilgrims visiting their fore- 
fathers' graves. If some of the patriotic 
societies at home, who are struggling to run 
their family history back for a century and 
a half, could hear these heathens trace 
theirs for three thousand years, they would 
be green with envy. 

Speaking of ancestry reminds me that a 
few years ago it was thought best that I 
should join a certain patriotic order, and 
as my spare time was occupied in keeping 
my automobile tires inflated, a party volun- 
teered to verify my Revolutionary connec- 
tions. All was easy for the first generation 
and a half. Then the clouds began to 
gather, and matters went rapidly from bad 
to worse, until it was a snap up whether I 
sprang from the line of Benedict Arnold 



Breezes from the Orient in 

or George Washington. To settle the mat- 
ter, it was finally decided to draw straws, 
and George won. After that point was def- 
initely established, things went on swim- 
mingly, and Napoleon Bonaparte Harris, 
Alexander the Great Harris, Hannibal and 
Julius Caesar Harris were soon framed up, 
but when it came to the Pharaohs, things 
went bad, and with Ptolemy II the thread 
was entirely lost. Therefore you can imag- 
ine the feelings that saddened my heart 
when, on one glorious morning last January, 
in the great museum in Cairo, I stood face 
to face with the mummy of my illustrious 
ancestor. As my eyes moistened I uncon- 
sciously ejaculated so many " ohs " and 
" ahs " that an attendant took me tenderly 
by the arm and led me to a case of scarabs, 
where he watched me in an official but 
kindly way until my emotions cooled off. 

Canton is a typical Celestial city, the cap- 
ital of South China, situated up the Pearl 
River about ninety miles from Hongkong, 



ii2 Breezes from the Orient 

and full of mosquitoes. Its streets, usually 
less than eight feet wide, are a tangled mass 
of gorgeous decorations, gilded woodwork, 
and colored silks, — a huge bazaar, filled 
with a wiggling mass of fat, contented- 
looking humanity, reminding one of a lot 
of rose-bugs squirming in a rancid tomato 
can, for the odor of their tiny thorough- 
fares is practically opaque. I have forgot- 
ten just what the population of Canton is 
to the square mile, but it is dense enough 
so that they have to push about two hundred 
thousand out on the river in boats about 
thirty feet in length, in which families of 
from five to fifteen are born, live out their 
lives, and pass on to make room for more, 
for besides their own flock, they frequently 
take boarders. 

On some of these boats, two or three hun- 
dred ducks are also kept. Each morning 
the craft is sculled up some canal to the 
open country, and the squawking birds let 
loose to feed. When John wants his family, 



Breezes from the Orient 113 

instead of crying " All aboard," he blows a 
whistle, and with wings a-flutter, back 
they waddle, each intent upon being the first 
one on deck, as the laggards are sure to 
receive a sound thrashing. 

Pigtails, a mark of bondage, imposed by 
the Tartar conquerors about a century and 
a half ago, are common in the neighboring 
countries, but the people in China are so 
patriotic to their new republic that I have 
seen none here, and the way the boys are 
drilling and the new flag is flying is evi- 
dence that China has truly awakened. 



Shanghai, China, April n, 1913. 

My first memory of the word Shanghai 
is in connection with a famous rooster of 
that breed which my folks owned when I 
was a boy. That is, I suppose he was fa- 
mous, for, to show his points, when the. 
neighbors called, father would get some 
grain and " call the hens." With wings 
outspread they would come trooping around 
the barn, with Mr. Shanghai heading the 
van. I also recall that we boys caused the 
bird's points to take a sudden drop, as father 
was struggling with its dinner-table autopsy 
around about Thanksgiving time. Speak- 
ing of hens, the eggs out here are so small 
that to eat them makes one feel as though 
he was robbing the baby's bank. 

The three-day voyage up from Hongkong 
was a continuous battle against head winds 

and heavy seas, which marooned in their 

114 



Breezes from the Orient u$ 

staterooms most of the fashionable young 
women who came aboard loaded with roses, 
Chinese coats and colds. I said loaded, but 
as far as the roses are concerned, that don't 
mean as much as at home, for outside of 
Mexico City, I have never seen flowers more 
beautiful or as cheap as in Hongkong. On 
the morning of the third day from Hong- 
kong we found ourselves anchored in 
the Yang-tse River, fourteen miles below 
Shanghai, to which city we were conveyed 
by tender, where we found a place of some 
eight hundred thousand people, who, as in 
Canton, have spilled themselves to a con- 
siderable distance beyond the ancient walls. 
The European quarter is the New York of 
China, and very beautiful, but the native 
settlement, with its narrow streets, heroic 
smells, startling costumes and Babylonic 
tongues, combine to create an impression 
that is guaranteed not to fade. I had sup- 
posed I had seen every form of conveyance 
known to man, but four women and three 



ii 6 Breezes from the Orient 

babies on one wheelbarrow was a new one 
to me. 

The atmosphere is charming, like our 
early May. Peach and cherry trees are in 
bloom, and the whole vegetable kingdom 
is donning its summer garb. 

To prevent his feeling slighted, we made 
a call at the home of ex-Ambassador Wu 
Ting Fang, who received us graciously. 
All America remembers Doctor Wu as the 
genial ambassador who inquired of Chaun- 
cey Depew, when he was presented, " How 
many wives have you? " We go from here 
to Japan. 



Kobe, Japan, April 16, 1913. 
THAT unanswerable critic, the census, 
tells us that American women are rapidly- 
handing the United States over to those of 
alien birth. An unwelcome fact that makes 
the child life of other lands the more inter- 
esting. 

Babies in Egypt, when old enough to sit 
up, are carried astride the left shoulder, 
facing inward, while the mother in India 
has a way of throwing her left hip out so 
as to make a sort of saddle upon which her 
little one rides. The Chinese mother drops 
her latest born into a receptacle on her back, 
from which its little feet and head protrude 
in a tortoise-like way, while in Japan the 
infant is tucked into a sort of a bag carried 
on its mother's stomach. 

If the Chinese babies 7 necks are not made 
117 



n8 Breezes from the Orient 

of India rubber they ought to be, for the 
mother hoes and handles a boat wholly 
unmindful that her sleeping infant's head 
is bobbing around like a poppy in a gale. 
Down at Hongkong, I saw two boys, each 
with a baby strapped to his back, get into 
a street squabble, which developed into such 
a luxuriant growth that the police had to 
interfere. But the boys gave no more 
thought to those infants on their backs than 
to the freckles on their faces. 

At Nagasaki, I was interested watching 
eight hundred Japs, mostly women, many 
with babies tied to them, coaling our ship. 
For this arduous toil of nine hours they 
received the munificent reward of ten cents 
each, and scrambled for the job. And in 
the face of such conditions, with a barren 
soil of a limited area, Japan's natural in- 
crease of population is not less than a mil- 
lion souls a year. Still, of all the peoples 
we have met, they are the most joyous. 
Even the tots smile at us, shake their little 



Breezes from the Orient 119 

hands, and sing out " Ohayo," which is their 
word of greeting. 

This is their cherry blossom time, and the 
maidens write poems on the loveliness of 
spring and tie them to the branches of 
bloom, and there are tables beneath, where 
the older people gather and make merry, 
notwithstanding the fact that, to flaunt an 
arrogant navy, they pay a tax amounting 
to thirty-four per cent, of their annual in- 
come. 

Yesterday we sailed past where the Japs 
pulverized the Russian fleet, then through 
the famous inland sea. I have an idea that 
the beauties are all there, but the weather 
was so miserably raw and windy, I con- 
cluded it would be wiser to invest in a book- 
let telling of its charms than to take a chance 
of verifying its claims with a hospital ex- 
perience. 

To jump in a single week from a climate 
where one's night-clothes are actually sticky 
with perspiration to where one's teeth chat- 



i2o Breezes from the Orient 

ter from the cold every time he steps on 
deck, is rather too sudden a change to 
throw even a Yankee into uncontrollable 
ecstasies of wild delight. 



Kyoto, Japan, April 19, 1913. 
Sluggish indeed would be the person 
whose blood would not quicken in Japan. 
The flowers, the mountains, the fields of 
green, the ozone, and the merry laughter of 
its light-hearted people combine to stimu- 
late one's enthusiasm. In most anything 
that requires patience and painstaking labor, 
perhaps Japan leads the world. They ap- 
pear to have a faculty of converting every 
tiny plot of ground into a thing of beauty; 
the miniature gardens are a delight, and 
they can imitate anything they think they 
need, from a camera to a battle-ship. We 
pride ourselves on our patriotism, but how 
long would we stand a thirty-four per cent, 
annual income tax to support a navy out 
of all proportion to our resources? And 
how long will the people of Japan stand 
for it? 



i22 Breezes from the Orient 

The empire proper is somewhere the size 
of our state of Minnesota, with a population 
of fifty million people, but so mountainous 
is the land that, even with the marvelous 
ingenuity for which its people are noted, 
but one-sixth of the soil has been brought 
under cultivation. 

There is no official religion. The greatly 
predominating lower classes worship idols, 
while temples and shrines actually litter the 
land. In a single generation, they have 
leaped from feudalism to a modern navy 
of two hundred vessels. They should have 
credit for their unparalleled material ad- 
vancement, but to class Japan on a par with 
Germany, England or America, or other 
nations that have spent hundreds of years 
perfecting their civilization, I believe to be 
wholly wrong. Their canals, railroads, etc., 
are certainly up to date, but what would 
you say of a father who goes to a temple, 
tosses a coin into a box, and rings a bell to 
wake up the bronze Buddha just before 



Breezes from the Orient 123 

him, to ask if it is safe to buy this, or sell 
that; or the mother who ties a cloth bib 
around the neck of a wooden god to cure 
her child's cold; or a people whose morals 
are the lowest of any nation in the world? 

If they are right, then our theories of 
religion, character and integrity, which we 
believe to be our nation's very foundation, 
are of no weight or value. That it is a 
delightful country to visit is unquestioned, 
that the people are alert, prosperous and 
patriotic, no one disputes, but now they 
have taken off their knee-trousers and as- 
sumed man's estate, why not quiet down a 
little on the flowers and speak of things that 
her sister nations would not for a moment 
tolerate? 

That Japan will remedy these evils there 
is little doubt, but in the meantime, I regard 
her as an unusually promising nation that 
is on its way. 



MlYANOSHITA, JAPAN, April 25, 1913. 

Yokohama is the commercial metropolis 
of Japan and the Mecca of most ocean 
leviathans whose prows are pointed toward 
Nippon, but trade's demands have robbed 
the place of much quaintness and " things 
Japanese," which prevail in the more south- 
ern cities of the empire. Instead of long 
rows of squalid-looking, but cleanly, one- 
story, unpainted houses, stone and brick 
structures, after European models adapted 
to local requirements, are the rule, and real 
horses instead of mammoth bulls, take the 
place of human beings, which, excepting 
locomotives, constitute the motive power of 
provinces further south. 

As in other cities, its people have their 
breathing-spots, and few places in this re- 
spect are more favored. It has its parks 
124 



Breezes from the Orient 125 

and shore resorts, where the old ones munch 
their peanuts moodily, the lasses and their 
swains look with longing eyes at the half- 
secluded arbors of sweet-scented wistaria, 
and the little ones giggle at the antics of 
the ever-frolicsome monkey. 

Such resorts are common to all cities, but 
if you take a train forty minutes to the south, 
connect with a waiting electric, which feels 
its way through an interminably long and 
narrow street, then some more miles through 
the country, you will finally bump up 
against a mountain which challenges fur- 
ther progress. 

Here, if unable to conquer your mania 
for speed, you can lose ninety per cent, of 
the enjoyment by boarding a motor-car, but 
if poor and sensible, you will step humbly 
into a rickshaw and allow three men to 
propel you up the steep road which clings 
to the mountain's precipitous sides in a most 
nerve-racking way. From the abrupt face 
of the heights across the gorge, lovely water- 



126 Breezes from the Orient 

falls break into rainbow mists; far down 
circle eagle-like birds, and high up in the 
blue, fleecy clouds race from peak to peak; 
and so the bumps and jounces of the four- 
mile ride slip away all too soon, but the 
perspiring men are glad to trot through the 
little village of Miyanoshita and stop in 
front of the pretentious Fujiya Hotel, — 
the Mount Washington house of Japan. 

If the hotel is crowded, as is usually the 
case, a pretty native girl will probably es- 
cort you through a most confusing array of 
corridors to the Japanese quarter, and with 
the sweetest of smiles leave you in a Japan- 
ese room with a floor of soft matting three 
inches thick, a niche for gods on one side 
of the room and sliding paper partitions on 
the other three. And, having satisfied your 
curiosity regarding the arrangement of the 
apartment, speculated as to your next-door 
neighbor behind the paper partition, and 
dressed, you will descend to one of the best 
meals you have enjoyed in the land. 



Breezes from the OriExNT 127 

When you open your window to the bra- 
cing air of morning, do not think that the 
array of one hundred or more uniformed 
carriers are an invading army who have 
taken possession during the night; though 
stalwart fellows they are, as it requires vigor 
for four men to carry a person over those 
mountain trails to Hakoney, seven miles 
away, also a little courage on your own part, 
but once there, beyond the beautiful lake, 
in a setting of pastoral hills, rises Fujiyama 
in its isolated loveliness. To my mind, the 
mountain itself is less impressive than Popo- 
catepetl, in Mexico, but the many legends 
which weave themselves around its spectral 
slopes, give it a mystery and local glory not 
fully appreciated by foreigners. The four- 
mile sail across the lake, the climb over the 
mountain to what is known as " Little Hell " 
(a sort of miniature Yellowstone Park, 
where the water comes boiling to the sur- 
face, from which nauseating fumes of sul- 
phur and great clouds of steam arise), and 



128 Breezes from the Orient 

the descent to your hotel as the long day 
wanes, combine to make an outing which 
you will certainly regard as one of your 
choicest days in Japan. 



Tokio, Japan, April 28, 1913. 
JAPAN has so many ex-capitals that one 
feels it would be a good plan for the Empire 
to inaugurate a bargain sale and dispose of 
some of them. Every few days, our guide 
explains that this, or that, was constructed 
when the city he is describing was the cap- 
ital. At Kamakura, I was wondering why 
the great bronze Buddha, forty-seven feet 
high and ninety-seven feet around, should 
have been built in the edge of the woods, 
up against a mountain-side, in a town of 
twenty thousand people, remote from any 
of the largest cities, but was informed that 
when placed there, in 1246, it was covered 
by an enormous and beautiful temple in a 
city of over two million inhabitants, the then 
capital of the country, but Tokio holds the 
governmental ribbons just at present. 

To a Westerner, Japanese cities are dis- 
129 



130 Breezes from the Orient 

appointing. Their narrow, sidewalkless 
streets, bordered by dingy, one-story, un- 
painted stores, remind one of the poorer 
districts of a large home city, and, as the 
buildings are seldom over twenty-five feet 
wide and possess no backyard, the shop- 
keeper's family, who occupy the rooms back 
of the diminutive store, of necessity use the 
street both as a place of gossip for them- 
selves and a playground for their children, 
creating an impression of their being more 
congested than is really the case. In a street 
in Canton, I counted sixty-two babies in 
ten minutes, and while Japan must yield the 
palm to her neighbors across the sea in this 
respect, if one's eyes can be trusted, she is 
in no immediate danger of race suicide. 

Tokio has a population of two million, 
five hundred thousand people, its principal 
features being its public buildings, splendid 
parks, modern streets, and Yoshiwara. With 
the exception of their Houses of Parliament, 
which are wooden structures wholly un- 



Breezes from the Orient 131 

worthy of their importance, the government 
buildings are very creditable adaptations of 
foreign models. 

The parks are large, centrally located, 
and, while to a Western eye they appear 
raw, much labor and money have been ex- 
pended to convert them into conditions at- 
tractive to the native eye. To the Japanese, 
all art must have a meaning. Their little 
breathing-places are planted with gnarled 
and stunted pines, which have been selected 
many miles away and transported and 
planted with minute care such as only the 
Japanese can give. Instead of flat, smooth- 
shaven lawns, the ground is purposely made 
into little humps and mounds as though it 
had been used for a dumping-ground not 
yet leveled ofT, while the trees purposely 
lean this way and that, and are never in 
rows. The pine, being an evergreen, sig- 
nifies eternal life, and its gnarled appear- 
ance proclaims strength and endurance. 
The Boys' Festival, which takes place every 



132 Breezes from the Orient 

spring, is now in progress, and strings of 
gigantic cloth, or paper carp, many eight 
or ten feet long, swing their distended forms 
from frequent flagstafrs — the carp signify- 
ing courage. 

In Tokio, the Government supports a 
school to teach its daughters the arrange- 
ment of flowers, one color meaning this, 
another that, and a branch longer or shorter 
having a meaning all its own. A Japanese 
lady told me that it required over five hun- 
dred pictures to adorn her home, as each 
festal day, holiday and season of the year 
must have its appropriate works of art. 

Across from my hotel stands the Com- 
mercial Museum, where all manufacturers 
are invited to display their wares. Here, 
buyers can inspect the product of the whole 
land and make their selection under one 
roof. 

In the center of the city, surrounded by 
moats and walls and armed guards, stands 
the Imperial Palace, all in a great park 



Breezes from the Orient 133 

where were gathered the munitions of war 
taken from the Russian Bear, and on 
the heights is the severe-looking Patriot's 
Shrine, where Togo and other heroes of 
the late war gathered and gave thanks to 
their ancestors for Japan's success, for an- 
cestral worship is still dominant throughout 
the land. 

As great boulevards were once cut 
through Paris, so broad thoroughfares are 
being made through Tokio, thousands of 
houses being torn away for that purpose. 
On such streets, modern stores and office 
buildings are being erected, and, as its peo- 
ple are clothed partly Oriental and partly 
Occidental, so the great city is a conglom- 
eration of the architecture of every land. 
In passing they turn to the left, rickshaws 
take the place of cabs, and mourners dress in 
white, but Tokio's most astonishing feature 
is its Yoshiwara, or district of prostitution, 
where is found the most modern section of 
the city. Here several thousand girls are 



134 Breezes from the Orient 

kept for three years each, none being al- 
lowed to leave the quarter without a permit 
during her term of servitude. It is one of 
the sights of Japan to wander through these 
streets and see the hundreds of girls on ex- 
hibition behind wooden bars like tigers in 
ornate cages. 

Japan may build the finest battle-ships 
afloat and man them with the bravest ever, 
but until she can vastly improve her morals, 
she is not fit company to mingle socially 
with the nations of the West. 



Nikko, Japan, April 30, 1913. 

Like Topsy, Nikko never had a birthday ; 
it just " growed," but the giant cryptomeria 
shade trees, one of which measures twenty- 
four feet and six inches in circumference, 
four feet from the ground, is ample evidence 
of the town having been on the way for 
some time. In fact, three hundred years ago 
its fame was such that a double row of cryp- 
tomerias was set out by royal command on 
each side of the main highway for thirty 
miles' distance, which now forms, perhaps, 
the longest array of gigantic shade trees in 
the world. Fully thirty thousand of the 
originals still bear witness to tire good sense 
of the ruler who planted them. 

Then there is the famous Sacred Bridge, 
which starts from nowhere and ends at noth- 
ing, — on its planks none save imperial feet 
can tread. To show General Grant the 

135 



136 Breezes from the Orient 

nation's greatest honor, to him its gates were 
opened, but, with his usual good sense, the 
General simply placed one foot on the 
planking of the structure and thanked the 
people for so great an honor. 

The story is that long years ago, a 
priest went searching for the rainbow, and 
arrived at this Nikko mountain stream, 
which his horse could neither jump nor 
ford; but just in the nick of time a huge 
serpent threw itself across the torrent, and 
with its head on one bank and its tail on 
the other, formed a bridge over which the 
horse and rider safely passed; and to com- 
memorate so great and improbable a fact, 
this lacquered bridge is religiously main- 
tained. 

Not far beyond is a shrine to which iron 
sandals with strings of wire are securely 
tied. Here many pilgrims come to pray for 
the muscular development of their lower 
limbs. The original parents of the multi- 
tudes of " See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak 



Breezes from the Orient 137 

no Evil " monkeys that are scattered over 
the globe, adorn a near-by temple, and not 
far away is a cat so finely carved that for 
three hundred years all rodents have given 
the place a very wide berth. 

For the moment, I have forgotten just 
what made Milwaukee famous, but it is the 
magnificent temples — the most gorgeous in 
Japan — that give to Nikko its crowning 
glory, and to them palanquins of the pow- 
erful, and peasants' feet, for long centuries 
agone have annually made their way. Be- 
yond, amid the somber, silent shadows 
of the dark-foliaged cryptomerias, are the 
resting-places of the nation's august dead, 
all of which is very interesting. But while 
tourists rave about its scenic beauty, the only 
things at Nikko that created in me a deep 
and abiding affection were its hills aflame 
with azaleas and japonica, its wonderful 
shade trees, and my pretty table-girl. 

Although it rained during the most of 
our stay we had a good time; but Nikko 



138 Breezes from the Orient 

had a much better time with us, for it sold 
us toadskin purses made of paper, bronze 
temple ornaments guaranteed three hun- 
dred years old that were really warm from 
the foundry molds, and ancient priestly 
robes from which the original basting 
stitches had never been divorced. Little 
wonder that Nikko caters to the American 
tourist. 



Hawaii, May 13, 191 3. 

THE more one wanders over this terres- 
trial sphere, the more he becomes reconciled 
to the unceremonious departure of Eve from 
Eden, for while serpents and fig leaves are 
good reading on a cold winter's night, the 
actual climate where such things exist makes 
a New Englander sigh for his bleak and 
rock-bound shores. 

Jiddah, the port of Mecca, boasts of the 
one and only tomb of Eve, and Java and 
Ceylon for long years were the only claim- 
ants to the site of the original Garden, but 
now that the stars and stripes are fixtures 
in the Pacific, Hawaii, with an array of 
descriptive adjectives that would turn a 
boarding-school girl green with envy, sets 
up its claim for that doubtful honor. 

Those who love nights so steaming hot 
that they can wring perspiration from their 

139 



izj-o Breezes from the Orient 

pajamas, and days when the sun comes out 
brilliant and scorching for fifteen minutes, 
then celebrates the event by raining torrents 
for an hour and a half, will probably award 
their sympathies to Adam, but, for reasons 
above stated, Eve could never have worn 
high linen collars or kept the crimps in her 
beautiful hair, therefore I am of the opinion 
that her departure was justified. 

It is a fact, however, that all three of the 
islands referred to have a similarity, and 
are very attractive to the eye. All are 
mountainous, and possess vegetation beau- 
tiful in the extreme. It was not my good 
fortune to get into the interior, but Hono- 
lulu is adorned with a greater variety of 
tropical vegetation than any city I have 
visited, and its aquarium is wonderful be- 
yond belief, — words simply fail to convey 
a mild idea of the fantastic forms and unbe- 
lievable coloring of its different specimens. 
I have seen the marine gardens at Santa 
Catalina, and the more important aquari- 



Breezes from the Orient 141 

ums of the world, but for novelty of form 
and wondrous color the collection at Hono- 
lulu is worth all others combined. 

The town has much to say regarding its 
" trade winds," but as the air was perfectly 
stagnant, I concluded the term had refer- 
ence to the breezy literature sent out by its 
live Chamber of Commerce, which advises 
visitors to bring nothing with them but a 
grip, as clothing and the other unnecessary 
adornments of that climate can be obtained 
at their large and attractive stores, where I 
found prices higher than anywhere I have 
been. 

An enthusiast informed me that sugar- 
cane and pineapple were their only impor- 
tant products, but as the mercury varied 
only about ten degrees in the year, crops 
were planted at any old time, and, as there 
were no seasons, the inhabitants lived on and 
on, with only the tax-gatherer to remind 
them of the flight of time. So, having lis- 
tened to his spiel, thanked him for his inter- 



142 Breezes from the Orient 

est in my behalf, and assured him that I 
would beseech my old friend Ananias to go 
there and abide, I fled to the good ship 
Korea amidst a torrential downpour and 
sailed for America. 



Pacific Ocean, May 19, 1913. 

In my first epistle to your paper, refer- 
ence was made to life on the ocean wave, 
but in the seventy-four days I have since 
spent on shipboard, few things of sufficient 
importance have occurred to render a letter 
on that subject of special interest. Perhaps 
mention may be made, however, of " An- 
tipodes Day," which in this trip occurred 
between Friday, May 9th, and Saturday, 
May 10th. 

When encircling the world, watches are 
occasionally adjusted to conform to local 
time, such adjustments aggregating twenty- 
four hours for the entire trip ; therefore one 
finds himself home a full day ahead, or a 
full day behind his scheduled time, having 
gained or lost a day, of which no record has 
been made. The one hundred and sixtieth 
meridian is used by mariners in adjusting 

143 



i44 Breezes from the Orient 

this difference; first, because half-way 
around the world from Greenwich, and 
second, because it is arbitrarily drawn so 
as to avoid all land in the Pacific. In my 
own case, I went to sleep on the evening 
of May 9th and awoke on " Antipodes Day," 
and the morning following awoke on Sat- 
urday, May 10th. Had I been going in 
the opposite direction (westward) and had 
gone to bed on Friday evening, May 9th, 
the next morning would have been Sunday, 
May nth. Wages of crews are not inter- 
fered with, as they are hired for the round' 
trip, and the curious dilemma adjusts itself. 
Of marine life, multitudes of flying-fish 
were seen in the Bay of Bengal, a fair sprin- 
kling of porpoises in the Red Sea and In- 
dian Ocean, four or five whales scattered 
here and there, and the sharks at Hawaii 
complete the list. But marine yarns were 
plentiful. The following, entitled, " How 
the Skipper Lost His Job," is from the cap- 
tain of the Korea. 



Breezes from the Orient 145 

" Every one knows that Balboa discov- 
ered the Pacific Ocean from a height in the 
Canal Zone, which still bears his name. 
When President Roosevelt visited the fa- 
mous ditch, a trail was cut through the 
jungle to the top of the mountain that he 
might ascend and get the wondrous view. 
At a banquet that evening, Teddy thanked 
the committee for their thoughtfulness, add- 
ing that it was one of the proudest moments 
of his life when he stood and saw both oceans 
at the same moment. To the surprise of 
all, a stranger arose and allowed he begged 
to differ with the honorable guest, for, as 
the Atlantic and Pacific were in exactly 
opposite directions, neither Roosevelt nor 
Balboa ever saw them both at the same 
moment, as no person can look in both di- 
rections at the same time. 

" At the banquet was the owner, also the 
skipper, of a local steamship, and the skip- 
per excitedly turned to the owner, saying, 
'This is the chance of your life; down in 



146 Breezes from the Orient 

the cook-room is a darkey with eyes so 
crooked that he sees both ways ; bet the man 
a thousand dollars,' and away flew the skip- 
per for the cook. The wager was taken. 
Five minutes later, when the darkey ap- 
peared upon the platform, the applause was 
intense, and the owner was the hero of the 
hour. But the stranger, nothing daunted, 
called for an oculist, who reported that he 
found the colored man's right eye so dis- 
torted that it looked directly over his right 
shoulder, and the left twisted the other way 
so that tears from that eye ran down his 
back, but, unfortunately, the right eye was 
made of glass." And that's how the skipper 
lost his job. 

As a fitting climax to the letters, good, 
bad and indifferent, which have been fur- 
nished your readers, I suppose I should 
record some startling experience or the hair- 
breadth escape of some ship in a terrible 
gale, but candor compels me to say that 
insurance records prove that a person is 



Breezes from the Orient 147 

safer on an ocean liner than any other place 
in the world, and that our locomotive stri- 
king a woman in Japan, and a passenger 
leaping overboard in the Pacific, completes 
the list of exciting incidents of my long 
journey. 

I am also aware that it is the proper 
thing, when arriving from a foreign shore, 
to violently shake the stars and stripes, affirm 
you will support American laws with your 
very life's blood, then go into the custom- 
house and prevaricate regarding every arti- 
cle you have purchased abroad. It beats 
all how mighty quick the mercury in the 
patriotic thermometer of the average Amer- 
ican takes a drop when he finds he must 
back up his big talk with good money. 

In this journey, I have traveled 19,504 
miles by steamship, 8,619 by rail, and 1,026 
miles by ponies, rickshaws, automobiles, 
donkeys, sedan-chairs, camels and elephants. 
Have tried to keep my eyes open, have not 
missed a meal on land or on sea, and, while 



DEC 18 1313 

148 Breezes from the Orient 

I have accumulated a store of information 
that I am sure will later prove to me a de- 
light, I have become very tired of the whole 
thing, and am mighty glad to learn that in 
an hour or so the land around the Golden 
Gate will slowly rise out of the sea, and that 
by noon my feet will once more rest on the 
fertile soil of the dear old U. S. A. 



